http://earlyradiohistory.us/1924cry.htm

SEVERAL experimenters have observed that some contacts, such as crystal and metal or crystal and carbon generally employed as detectors may produce undamped oscillations of any frequency, exactly as the vacuum tube oscillator. The same contact may also be utilized as an amplifier. Oscillating crystals are not new since they were investigated as far back as 1906 by well known engineers, but it was not until lately that a Russian engineer, Mr. O. V. Lossev, succeeded in finding some interesting uses for oscillating crystals. The construction of the apparatus by means of which oscillations may be produced with crystal as a generator seems quite simple and should be of great interest to our readers.