When was the first crystal discovered and what crystal was it?

Question: When was the first crystal discovered and what crystal was it?
- Keywords:
- Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more about:
  
  crystal
  
  discovery
Asked by BlueBubble123 to Martin on 17 Mar 2015.
- Martin Ward answered on 17 Mar 2015:
  
  Hmm, this is a good question and a tricky one to answer, but I will give it a go!
  
  So the first crystal (made by humans) would have probably been made 100’s or even 1000’s of years ago by accident before we even realised how useful the process was. Something we do know for certain though, was when the first scientist was able to find out what the structure of a crystal was. This was just over 100 years ago by a pair of scientist called Bragg (they were father and son). They made crystals of sodium chloride, potassium chloride and potassium bromide and by using x-rays they could figure out what atoms were joined to each other and in what order.

Question: When was the first crystal discovered and what crystal was it?