FTP name this effect, the evolution of a voltage across the face of a crystal in response to mechanical strain.
Materials susceptible to this phenomenon generally lack inversion centers, and current research stems from its utility in MEMS sensors.  The inverse of this phenomenon is known as electrostriction and was demonstrated in the year following its discovery, and was shortly thereafter used in the first SONAR.  Discovered by analogy to Brewster's work with heat in the same context, this was discovered when, in 1880, tourmaline, quartz, topaz, and Rochelle salts were compressed by Pierre and Paul-Jacques Curie, who named the resulting effect from the Greek for "squeeze."  FTP name this effect, the evolution of a voltage across the face of a crystal in response to mechanical strain.
Materials susceptible to this phenomenon generally lack inversion centers, and current research stems from its utility in MEMS sensors.  
piezoelectricity (or piezoelectric effect)