Trapping Light in crystal

[Lomelindo]

This reminded me of Fëanor’s works involving trapping light in crystal.

https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sc ... ping-light

[Mildir]

Interesting, though I find it difficult to follow the article when the language gets overly technical.
"Light chips" and "the photonic equivalent of silicon" are very helpful keywords, in this regard.
I'm sure Fëanor was familiar with silicon... but devising its "photonic equivalent"???
Could it be something he made unwittingly, simply by performing different operations with materials?

The reason I suspect that he made something unwittingly, without knowing how, is that he clearly states he wouldn't be able to create the Silmarils again.
So, there must be something not repeatable in the process... (and is it really just the light of the Two Trees?)

[Meneldur Olvarion]

[...] I'm sure Fëanor was familiar with silicon... but devising its "photonic equivalent"???

Of course he wouldn't have used the same terms, but may have had similar ideas. Although I rather doubt his methods were similar to those proposed the article: it requires a societal advance in science and (especially) technology that the ancient Eldar simply didn't possess. It's a more difficult thing than it seems on the surface; see "A group of people are sent back to 10000BC and tasked with creating a modern computer. How many people with which skills and resources would it require and how long would it take?" [link]

Could it be something he made unwittingly, simply by performing different operations with materials?

I do this rather frequently with modifications to my computer, as I'm very particular about the interface and find the Microsoft defaults completely unsuitable for my use case and aesthetics. Although in my case, it isn't exactly 'unwittingly', as I'm getting advice on what to search on and what sites to go to from my Salvia-friend, and it's more direct ("No, that will never work - go here instead."). Nevertheless, I'm fairly certain that in Fëanor's case, a liminal information gathering state also existed.

Added: I once read a novel very similar to the ideas underlying this question called The Guns of the South. It was pretty good and covered the difficulties well.