"My dad made a crystal radio when he was a boy. He ran a wire to a tall tree as an antenna . Sure enough a passing thunderstorm shot a bolt to the wire. The radio was setting on the family piano. The lighting destroyed not only the radio but also piano.
Bill "

"I'd guess your dad's radio used a galena crystal tho, not a quartz crystal. Quartz oscillators were not common until the 40's. The crystal set I built as a boy called for a 'cat's whisker' as the contact with the galena. The neighbor's cat avoided me after that ... could have saved a lot of trouble if she'd just told me that a cat's whisker meant a thin piece of wire.
Bob"

"I have been reading about the Pacific Northwest Jade since Zeke got me started on the subject of nephrite formation. Thanks Zeke, "

"I believe I have some graywacke Aaron sent me. I have not had a change to go look at it again. I have been helping Billie get ready for a show. Some of the green "Grossular Garnet" may be graywacke. The chert will be appear to be silky and free of grains. The Graywacke though glassy may still have some grainy texture more like quartzite. The uplifting, eroding mountains shed sediments. These sediments accumulate in basins within or on the margins of the orogrny zone, and provide a record of the orogeny. Where the orogenic belt is primarily a volcanic arc, the sediments will be rich in eroded volcanic rock debris, and clay, which some volcanic rocks quickly become as they are exposed to air and water. Sandstones rich in eroded bits of volcanic rocks and clay are called graywackes. Graywackes are "dirty sandstones," the dirty appearance coming from the dark bits of weathered volcanic rock and the clay. USGS Graywacke is a metamorphic sandstone in which grains or fragments of various minerals, as quartz and feldspar, or of rocks, as slate and siliceous clay rocks, are embedded in which (as Bob pointed out) is siliceous in much of Washington State.
Bill"

"a little bit of research goes a long way. next year i'm going to have to hit the South and middle forks of the nooksack...both have jade from the same general source as grandy....grandy's is just the tail end. I seem to recall a mine up there as well...can't recall where i got that info though.

~Zeke"