WE’re still talking about lenses on flashlights!
This week we’ve got sapphire. The most premium of options.
I love sapphire! Ever since I pioneered it’s use for spin stations for spinning tops back in 2016 I’ve loved it!
But aren’t sapphires blue?
Lets talk about sapphire a bit first before we get into its use in flashlights.
Sapphire is the third hardest substance after Diamond at the top and moissanite in the number two spot.
Hardness of minerals is measured using the Mohs scale. This measures how hard it is to scratch a mineral with another mineral. It’s not the most accurate scale but it’s very handy for general use.
Diamond is the standard at a Mohs rating of 10. Sappire is a 9 which means its extremely hard and scratch resistant.
Sapphire is made from a mineral called Corundum which itself is made Aluminum Oxide or the rust of aluminum. SO cool that this crazy hard material is made from aluminum!
Back to blue like I said in the beginning. Almost😂. The natural color of pure sapphire is perfectly clear. Pure being the operative word. But very rarely are things pure in the naturals mineral world. And that’s where the color comes in. Impurities in the sapphire crystal are what causes the color.
Blue sapphires have titanium and iron in the crystal which is what causes the blue color.
Fun fact. Did you know rubies are just sapphire with chromium as their impurity? Yep and when there’s not enough chromium in there to make a deep red they’re call pink sapphire’s.
Sapphire comes in natural and synthetic flavors. Synthetic sapphires are grown in a lab and are what’s useful for industrial applications.
Synthetic sapphires are grown in a lab and are chemically identical to natural sapphires with no impurities and have all the same useful properties.
What are those useful properties? We already talked about their scratch resistance. And that’s the biggest reason to use it on a flashlight
Their ability to handle heat is off the charts. Also handy.
Sapphire is also transparent to almost all forms of light. Terribly useful for a flashlight!
I could talk more about sapphire but I won’t today. Let me know what you think in the comments