Crystals and Light: The Bell System Science Experiment No. 4 and Elizabeth Wood
THE MICROSCOPE
2026, Volume 73:1, pp. 3–12
DOI
https://doi.org/10.59082/GXYC6401
AUTHOR
Wayne Moorehead
ABSTRACT
In the mid-1960s, the Bell System produced a total of five experiment kits, free to any high school teacher or instructor that asked for them. The first three experiments concerned the high technology of the day regarding telecommunications: magnetism, solar energy, crystal growth (transistors), and electronic speech. The fifth experiment simulated the activity of computers of the day. The fourth experiment (Bell System Science Experiment No. 4) taught the students about crystals and light and included the book Experiments with Crystals and Light, a laboratory manual written by Elizabeth Wood, together with minerals, chemicals, and other materials to perform the experiments. Also included was a simple polarized light microscope kit (to build and use) and Wood’s book Crystals and Light: An Introduction to Optical Crystallography to explain the theory behind the observations obtained in the experiments.
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