The colorful, magnificent, graceful and luxurious crystal lamp is known as the "king of decorative lamps". During the "Renaissance" period at the beginning of the sixteenth century, there were historical records of crystal decorative lamps. At that time, the crystal decorative lamps were metal lamp stands, hung with natural crystal pendants, lighting decorative lamps with candles.
Natural crystal
Natural crystal is a transparent quartz crystal, hexagonal columnar, it has a high hardness, reflective beacon ("commonly known as colorful light") is extremely strong. Pure crystal is colorless transparent crystal, while natural crystal without impurities is almost not found, natural crystal mostly contains bubbles, impurities, crystal turbidity. Due to the small production of natural crystal, the value is expensive, the light transmittance is insufficient, there are many defects, and the quality is difficult to guarantee, it is not suitable for batch use. The world's first decorative lamp of artificial crystal was created by the French-Italian Bernardo Perotto in 1673. In 1687, the French Emperor Louis XIV imported a batch of crystal lamps made of natural crystal from Italy and installed them in the Palace of Versailles. Since this event is clearly recorded in the inventory records, the Palace of Versailles is often used as the source of the crystal lamp.
In the middle of the seventeenth century, during the Rococo period, when Europeans were particularly eager for gorgeous objects and decorations, crystal decorative lamps came into being and became very popular. In 1699 Louis XIV decided to grant a patent to M. Bertin for the production of die-cast glass instead of natural quartz as a pendant for crystal lamps. In 1800, crystal pendants and accessories for crystal lamps were born in Italy and France.
Crystal ceiling light
In the 17th and 18th centuries, Bohemia dominated the market for crystal decorative lamps due to the low price, high quality and high quality of crystal pendants and accessories, and crystal lamps began to become popular. Since the invention of artificial crystal, most of the crystals used in decorative lamps are artificial crystals, and the reason why crystal lamps can shine brightly is mainly because the refractive index of crystal is relatively high, which mainly depends on the lead content, purity and cutting process of the crystal.
Artificial crystal, that is, high-lead glass, or "lead crystalline glass", is the raw material quartz sand through a series of processes to refine, in ordinary glass (the composition is silica) to add more than 24% lead oxide, and then through fine cutting technology and flawless polishing efforts to manufacture. The brightness and transparency of artificial crystal are similar to natural crystal, and the crystal is pure and transparent, which makes up for the lack of natural crystal.
Internationally, there is a strict concept of natural crystal, artificial crystal, crystal glass, glass, and the international standard for lead oxide content is 24%, and only when this content is reached can it be called crystal. The European Economic Community (EEC) published guidelines in the form of document 312/1972 in 1972, stipulating that lead crystal glass is divided into: all-lead crystal, containing PhO (lead oxide) ≥ 30%; Lead crystal, containing PhO≥24% crystal glass, the standards of various countries are inconsistent, the general PhO content in 6% ~ 18% can be called crystal glass; PhO content less than 6% can only be called ordinary glass products.
K9 crystal
Domestic commonly known as K9 crystal, first-class crystals are crystal glass products, has not yet reached the crystal level. When we buy crystal lamps, we can pay extra attention to the detailed introduction of the lamps and understand the specific types of crystals used, so as to avoid stepping on pits.
Lighting crystal crystals are divided into traditional crystals, sandwich crystal lamps, glass bent crystal lamps, candle crystals, modern low-pressure crystals, modern flat low-pressure crystals and many other categories.