Bottles broke in a million pieces?

[crushday]

I recently moved from Montana to Seattle and moved my cellar. I moved 84 cases of 750’s and 60 magnums. It all survived the move but I had a stack fall over as I was unloading the truck. All the bottles in the top three cases, in a stack of five, shattered upon impact. Shattered is not really an accurate description ~ more like became the powder of a million shards. I buy high quality bottles so this one has me stumped.

Anyone out there know the reason for the end result of the crash?

 

[AkTom]

I don’t. A moment of silence please.

 

[balatonwine]

I don't know either. But it "sounds" like it was tempered glass. Applying pressure or impact to tempered glass in the right way can cause it to become a powder. Classic example is Prince Rupert's drop.

 

[Scooter68]

Oh the humanity! A tragic event - Perhaps the tempered glass explanation or a sympathetic detonation - once one shattered / exploded the forces spread and multiplied.

If it was tempered glass (I don't know why bottle makers would use that) It is a touchy product. I moved a shower door out of it's frame and is simply dragged across a piece of the aluminum shower frame - set up a harmonic vibration and in about 1/2 second I was left holding crumbles of glass and the entire thing just broke into pieces the size of green peas.

 

[Bubba1]

I learn something everyday

 

[Brigitte]

I don't know either. But it "sounds" like it was tempered glass. Applying pressure or impact to tempered glass in the right way can cause it to become a powder. Classic example is Prince Rupert's drop.

Interesting. Glass is fascinating

 

[Jal5]

We moved a tempered glass outdoor dining table years ago and it stuck one leg on the deck board. Shattered into tiny pieces.

 

[stickman]

The bottles in question were probably produced during a process upset that prevented them from passing through the annealing oven. The annealing oven is what takes the bottles from the high production temperature to a cooler temperature slowly over a predetermined time. Unfortunately the bottles got packed and shipped, but should have been sent to the rework bin.