Glass Smashing Spontaneously

[Rafferty]

Hello there,

This is a bit of a strange question. I work in a bar and at least a few times a week glasses explode in my hand spontaneously. I dont hit the glasses, squeeze them or anything. They're neither hot nor cold when I'm picking them up. I just literally pick one up to use it and it explodes in my hand, more often than not resulting in me getting shards of glass stuck in my hand.

Can anyone offer ANY explanation as to why this might be happening?

Thank you

Melanie

[gen2]

Glass is shaped at a high temperature while the glass is still plastic.

As it cools and contracts, stresses build up in the structure.

Large important pieces of glasswork are annealed - that is, they are cooled very slowly over a period of several days.

This is not cost-effective with everyday objects such as drinking glasses, so virtually all household (and pub) glasses are highly stressed.

It just needs two events to trigger a catastrophic failure.
i) A local weakness or scratch to act as a focus for the stress. These are bound to occur quite frequently in regularly handled items.
ii) The trigger for the collapse is a further stress that acts at the previously formed flaw. That stress is caused by expansion, and that generated by the heat from your hands as you pick up the glass.

Maybe you should be claiming danger-money from your employer?

[wildwood]

Clever avatar gentoo.

[bigfoot3000]

A ghost?

[woofgang]

the other thing from my time in pubs is that glasses get more likely to do this as they get older and more worn. If all the glasses were bought at the same time,then they are likely to shatter at the same time

[scotman]

I agree with above. It is the result of the glass finally giving up under internal manufacturing stresses.

[MalcolmY]

I readsome time ago about a spate of breakages in a bar where pint glasses broke in a very unuual way; the top couple of inches broke off very cleanly just around the area of the bulge. After some investigation the bar manager concluded that the barmaid was drying the glasses with a tea towel while wearing her diamond engagement ring. This acted exactly as a glass cutter.