Special Lab Grown Crystals

Bromellite, Beryllium Oxide

bromellite crystal, app. 1.5 cms

Bromellite is natural occuring beryllium oxide, BeO, hexagonal. With a hardness of 9 (!), a refractive index of 1.720, 1.735 and a reasonable dispersion it could be considered a nice gemstone material. However natural crystals in cutting quality are extremly rare (from Langban in Sweden) and also are the man made ones. The other drawback is the fact that beryllium and beryllium oxide is a severe and dangerous poison. The dust must not be inhaled and even contact with the skin should be avoided. Bromellite is so far the only "poisonous gemstone", which fact could be used in a murder mystery story in the style of Agatha Christie. Bromellite crystals have been grown so far by the Verneuil method and from the flux. The crystals offered here have been grown hydrothermal are partly still on their silver wires and result from a trial production in the seventies , probably produced by a company in the "silicon valley" area. The technical use was to find a substrate material for heavy duty integrated circuits as beryllium oxide is an electric isolator but has an extremly high thermal conductivity which is higher than that of many metals. In this specific use its only surpassed by diamond.

For some reason there was never a commercial large scale production of this crystals and the specimen had been put away in the storage cabinet until they popped up on the market in 1997. So far they are the only large size bromellite crystals with nice crystal facets on the market and a nice collectible for every crystal connoissier.
Crystals are available from US-$ 20.00 to US-$ 120.00 a piece. They are all mounted in a "bell box".

Ruby & Safire "Laser" Rods

ruby & safire rods

This laser rods from ruby and safire have been produced in the sixties by a modified Verneuil method (up side down) which means that the flame was comming from the bottom. Manufacturer was Linde and its not absolutely shure that the rods realy had been intended only for the use in lasers. They might have also been used in "ruby bearings" in watches and other fine mechanical instruments.

The rods have a diameter of 0.125 inches (ca. 3.2 mm) which makes them perfectly preformed for 3 mm melee stones but they might also used "as is" in jewelry or even for technical applications.
The pieces are up to 15 cms long and are sold for US-$ 2.00/gm (ruby) resp. US-$ 1.00/gm (white safire).
The rods weigh about 0.35 per cm.
Quantity discounts available on request !

Where and how to buy

UNDER FURTHER CONSTRUCTION !

Udo J.A. Behner Crystal Growing
Zum Bildchen 62
D-66687 Wadern/Morscholz - Germany
Phone : 06871/91007 - FAX : 06871/91006 eMail : mr.bismuth@t-online.de

© 1998,1999,2000 by Udo J.A. Behner