The Rodent's Burrow: Gelled colloid versus stainless steel
I'm reminded of an experience in college. I had a glass-front stereo cabinet. One day, while I happened to be looking at the cabinet, the glass door shattered. There was no impact, it just shattered. And, to make it more exciting, all the little pieces shattered afterwards. In fact, for nearly an hour, I watched while pieces spontaneously shattered into smaller pieces. Kinda like watching corn pop, only not.
I still don't really have any clue why that happened, nor have I encountered anyone who has had a similar experience. It was very very bizarre.
UPDATE: 68 comments so far, mostly from people who have experienced this same phenomenon. See especially THIS COMMENT which contains a fairly good explanation of why this happened.
I can't answer for the shattering without provocation, but I can speak to the continual shattering.
I was present when someone threw a small pebble and accidentally struck the glass on a movie poster case. The pebble was quite small, and did not do much damage on the knockthrough, but did cause several cracks in the glass. These cracks propigated through the remainder of the glass over the course of the next half hour until it had shattered into the small pieces safety glass is designed to make. All the while the glass shards stayed together in the pane, until the individual who caused this rather beautiful display knocked the pane out so that he could clean up the glass as best he could. Even then, what shards remained were still trying to crack into safety glass quasi-cubes.
Therefore, I'd suspect that the corn popping effect is simply a trait of safety glass. Might the initial spontaneous shattering have also been related, like a manufacturing defect?
Exploding Glass - The Michigan StoryWell, Dr Bacchus was commenting about Ken Coar's glass experience and brought up a rememberance of spontaneous glass breakage. This reminded me of a story, so I thought I would share....
As Moose said via trackback, we had a similar experience with a pinball machine glass cover. Safety glass is designed to shatter into small non-sharp pieces. I guess it is unstable when shattered and continues to pop apart for a while. I guess the convection or uneven cooling caused it to break apart. It was quite strange to watch and very loud on the initial crack.
I have also had a strange experience with glass. I am a student and was sitting in my english class one day, when a glass that had been filled with water for several days spontaneously shattered,imploded even. nothing had hit it at all.
I have had two experiences with exploding glass. The fist happened in a gym. I was on a stationary bike staring ahead at 3 empty squash ball courts. Suddenly the middle court's entire glass front shattered into tiny pieces. It sounded like a gunshot. Everyone was astonished that it had happened since there was no one in the vacinity. I was the closest at 5 feet away on a bike. The second experience happened today. I own two pinball machines (Torpedo Alley - 1988 Data East, and The Getaway High Speed II - 1991 Williams). Today I removed the safety glass top of the Data East Machine to look at the playfield. After I had set the glass on the floor and started to stand up it shattered. I had already let the glass go and it was stable, but it shattered anyway. Several of the pieces managed to fly all over the room. Some as far as ten feet away. And although safety glass is disigned to shatter into small pieces, the pieces are still sharp - I received several small cuts to my arms and legs since I was wearing shorts and a tee-shirt. I even had a small shard sticking out of my cheak. Not sure what caused it to break, but now I'm in the market for a new glass top for my machine.
Last wednesday night, i had a friend over. while we were sitting in another room, we heard a shattering from the kitchen area. we looked all over the house, and found nothing. today, my husband opened the kitchen cabinet where we keep our drinking glasses and found shattered glass all around them on the floor of the shelf. none of the other glasses were broken, and there was no one near the cabinet or kitchen at the time of explosion. the house was about 68 degrees. any ideas?
Last night we were awakened by a huge explosive noise coming from the ensuite in our room. We investigated to discover that the glass bowl vanity had completely disintengrated and was no longer sitting on the cabinet but had exploded and covered the whole room in shattered glass. We were in shock and still are and vary wary of replacing the bowl with another glass one. Had someone been in the bathroom at the time, they would have been severely injured by flying glass an
not to mention the shock that would have occurred. This was a bizarre experience. This website has been helpful to us, as everyone we have told today has just looked at us very strangely.
We were having dinner this evening when we heard a strange noise and got up to investigate. Our cat was at the back sliding glass door looking upset so we assumed an animal had approach the door and went to see if there was a cat or dog outside. What we found was that the glass top of our patio table had spontaneously shattered. We could find nothing that would cause this to happen. No projectile or object. Totally strange.
I have had a similiar experience, about 3 years ago when the family was asleep I awoke to a Crash like sound from the bathroom everyone was asleep mind you,and When i went into the bathroom there was a hole in the glass for the shower as if someone had punched it it was a huge hole not all of it shattered yet, then my family woke up came into the room and the glass started shattering right in front of us so we cleared out. at first we thought it might have been pressure or something but it a sealed glass at all there was about a 1 foot tall space above and a 4 inch space below.
I'm glad to know we are not alone. Today our family came home from shopping to find my husband's glass of tea, he had left on the bar, shattered into several small pieces. Even the larger pieces were shattered but held together. The glass had flown in all directionsin about a 5 foot radious. The house was about 70 degreese and we could not find anythig that would have struck the glass to cause the explosion. Very wierd!
I was eating breakfast the other day when I heard a crash in the kitchen. I found nothing, but when I later opened the dishwasher (which was not on) I found that a drinking glass had shattered into very small pieces. It amazed me, and I had no explanation.
I had a wierd experience last evening. I returned from work and decided to put some things in the dish washer.
I picked up a tumbler - a thick bottomed type of whiskey glass. As I walked over to the dishwasher the glass spontaneously
exploded in my hand, with a loud explosion. Fortunately most of the glass went away from me and ended up in the dishwasher
and on the floor of the kitchen. The larger chunks of class had gone almost opaque with the number of internal cracks in it.
We had had these glasses for over 25 years with no problem. I hate to think what could have happened if someone had been gonig
to drink from the glass when it exploded. My hand is still stiniging this morning - though no glass is embedded in it.
I was really shaken up after the incident.
I was in the bedroom when I heard a loud crash in the kitchen. It sounded like somebody slammed a plate on the floor. When i Went into the kitchen I found the tempered glass top to one of my frying pans, that i had washed about an hour ago, in a hundred pieces on the kitchen counter. There was no explanation, it was as if someone had smashed it with a hammer.
I am reassured to find this website with the comments. I was in my bedroom on the phone just half an hour ago and all of a sudden heard a loud explosion like fireworks, but it seemed to be coming from my bedroom door (made of glass). When I opened the door, I found that the glass had been shattered and was continuing to shatter into tiny pieces. Its still happening as I type, though the pieces are all still in position. I got really freaked out because tonight is Halloween and also because my phone conversation at the time this happened was really intense and I was very emotional as a result. Although I don't know the explanation for the glass shattering, it is reassuring to know I'm not alone.
Our glass-topped patio table just shattered. I was wondering if it had something to do with the cold temps we have had lately in San Diego, but now that I have read of all these other experiences, I don't know.
We too had a recent experience with a glass shower door inploding into a zillion pieces. Our baby was taking a bath and his mother reached in to take him out and he pressed on the door at which time it exploded. It was an extremely scarely experience. He and his mom suffered from lacerations to their bodies. This may have been the result of a defective glass door or I wonder can it have been something else? Reason I wonder is we have an unusal low pitched sound that sounds like water that comes into our home at night, only and has a deafening pitch to it. Can it be noise pollution is breaking glass?
To whom it may concern, Tempered safety glass is required by law today and is very safe. Although in very rare cases tempered safety glass can break for no apparent reason. The reason is because safety glass is heat treated durring manufacturing to make it very hard to break durring its life time. Unfortunately its it is possible for a random piece to be flawed durring this process thus causing one in million to break for no apparent reason. The odds are this happening to you are like being struck by lightning. Slim to none. In the old days plate glass was used which was NON safety glass. Plate glass of yesteryear was unsafe breaking into big jagged pieces which was in those days was seriously injuring people . The goverment stepped in and created laws governing glass and its safety today. Rest assured your glass is safer than ever before in mans history.
I WAS HOLDING A GLASS WITH DISOLVING PAIN KILLERS IN IT AND ALL OF A SUDDEN THE GLASS EXPLODED IN MY HAN D I CAN NOT EXPLAIN THIS AS HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS BEFORE THE BASE OF THE GLASS WAS ONE INCH THINK AND WHEN IT SHATTERED IT BECAME CLOADY AND WAS IN VERY SMALL PIECES
That last was Too FUNNY. I'm laughing out loud in Borders right now. I'm crying, for crying out loud. Really. Tears. IN MY EYES.
I needed that.
Wow. So glad I found this journal. This has happened to me not once, but twice in 3 months. Still don't know why, but I'm glad to know I don't have a spirit in the house that dislikes my glassware :-)
In November I had a small ladies get-together at my house. After the party, I was talking to the 2 remaining guests when we heard a crash of sorts in the kitchen. One of my wine glasses on the countertop had broken - no - exploded into tiny pieces. These are heavy thick glasses. The cat was outside and there was no evidence of a fall. We were mystified, and then I let it go.
Last night I was watching TV, hubby in the office, and I heard a "tinkling" shattering sound faintly in the kitchen. My honey searched the kitchen, and when he opened the glassware cabinet, one glass (I think a thick tumbler - hard to tell because it was in such small pieces) had exploded all over that shelf of the cabinet.
Has anyone figured out why this happens? I was freaked out since this happened last fall too. Do I have some sort of vibrational energy butting heads with my 70 degree house? Or do I need to stop taking hand-me down glassware?
Well what can I say it happed to us less than an hour ago. The glass which my fiance had finished her cordial was sitting on the bench about 1.5 meters away. She was facing an opposing bench and I was leaning on it facing the glass talking. I was practically watching it when it exploded with a bang. It was at night and the glass had had a cool drink in it 15 minutes previous. In the split second it took to flinch and focus all I got to see was the bits of glass flying out onto the floor. So I've jumped on the net - firstly I'm please we're not alone - any scientific answers out there?
Shower door was shattered when we got home last night...no break in, just a million pieces of tempered glass where a clear surface used to be. Reading up on some glass websites I found: Careless handling and improper installation sometimes produce damage, which leads to “spontaneous breakage” or “delayed breakage”. This means that occasionally a sheet will not shatter immediately at the time of damage, but perhaps weeks later. Inclusions in glass such as NiS can also trigger a delayed breakage effect. Nickel sulphide inclusion, also known as NiS, occurs during the manufacturing process for float glass. In a glass batch, nickel-rich contaminants such as stainless steel might be present, and then combine with sulphur to form nickel sulphide inclusions. Although some spontaneous breakages occur due to the above-mentioned factors, much breakage is called "spontaneous" just because there is no easily visible cause.
I am so glad this website is here. Two years ago I had new shower doors installed, and last night, I heard a loud noise toward the back of the house. At first, I thought the patio roof had caved in because of the storms/hail we had that day, only to see that is was my shower door in tiny pieces on the floor. The glass was still making noise like rice crispies, totally freaky! The other door is perfectly fine. I'm glad to know my house isn't possessed!
Personally, I am glad to see that I am not alone in this either, but tonight about an hour and a half to two hours ago the same thing had happened to me.
It was a glass door that was taken out of it's entertainment center at the time. I in fact had been moving it all over the place and before i could set it down one last time the thing exploded in my hand. Glad I didn't get cut.
But, it continued to crackle and pop for nearly 2 hours afterwards.
Now for an explanation I have a theory. Frequency's like sound travel in waves. And it is a fact that a certain tone of noise can shatter a glass because of the waves that the sound travels at. Frequency's cannot be heard but do still travel in waves, and the wave itself may be the cause of the break. In frequency I mean HF, UHF, VHF, or possibly even Microwave (although I have kind of ruled out microwave because of the side effects on people that microwave causes, and none of them are present).
Frequency's may be the cause of this, but I can't be sure. Anyway if anyone else has an idea or theory it would be cool to see. ;)
Also can you leave a geographic location as I am researching what causes this. I am in Palm Springs, CA.
Well, I too am very pleased to find this website because it's kind of nice to know that my weird experience isn't the only one.
About two weeks ago I had washed the dishes and wiped off the kitchen counters, then I took a glass ( a thick based one like an "old fashioned" or whiskey glass ) from the kitchen cupboard and had a drink of water. I left the glass in the middle of the kitchen counter and went into my living room to work on my computer.
After about 20 or 30 mins there was a LOUD explosion from the kitchen. When I went to look ... the kitchen counter,floor and window sill were all covered with bits of glass.
I was absolutely amazed by what I saw and all the pieces ( large and small ) were all "crazed". There was nothing to cause it.
Doesn't anyone know what would cause it to happen ? Glass fatigue ??...........??? I live in East Yorkshire, England.
This seems to be more common than I thought. Was just about to give in to angry ghosts and stuff. -- Last weekend, after shopping, my wife and I stopped in our neighborhood pub. We had just received our drinks (first of the day), and a woman sitting next to my wife went to the ladies room. Just before she got back to her barstool a somewhat loud explosion occurred. There were walnut-sized pieces of brown glass around about an 8' radius. Turned out to be a bar ashtray had blown up for no apparent reason. I was in shock, had to have several more drinks! Nobody was injured, and ther were other sober witnesses.
I have been trying to figure out what happened to my patio door. Two nights ago I awoke at 5:30am to hear a popping, crackling noise like rice crispies. I went out into the living room to see my patio door was completly shattered, and still shattering. The door is still intact, but the pane is completly shattered, and it looks like something hit it. At first I thought someone had thrown something from outside, but I live too high up for that to happen. Then I noticed that it was only the inside pane, the outside pane and the screen were fine!
My apartment building is approx. 30 years old, and I thought that maybe after 30 years, the glass couldn't hold up anymore... that's the only explanation I can think of..
If anyone can figure this out please let me know!!!
I was just in our bedroom changing the sheets when I heard what sounded like a water pipe exploding and water rushing out. I checked through the entire house but nothing. So I took the wash out to the washing machine on the deck and glanced up. I saw that the oblong patio table glass top at the other end had exploded all over the deck. It was still making noise. I cannot understand what causes this to happen but I picked up a few pieces and it kept exploding and I got a sliver inbedded in my hand. What do the manufacturers say about this scary problem? I shudder to think we could have been eating our dinner out there when it happened. It threw glass more than 10 feet around with such force that it stuck in a rug near the door.
I wanted to share this website, http://www.jadachesney.com/ as it tells the story of a poor sweet little girl who was injured by a patio table exploding.
I agree with the frequency theory...with a all of the "Waves" around us, it makes me question the impace. (Radio waves, TV waves, Satellite waves, cell phone waves, microwaves, etc etc. )
Very frightening stuff.
Good site. Yesterday as I was leaving from work, I was sitting in my car waiting to turn onto the road. There was no traffic coming from the left, but farther away on the right. Suddenly my half open driver's door window just shattered. This is a rural setting and the closest trees were 100 yards away, no cars, trucks, or any vehicles coming from the left. The vehicle coming from the right was still several hundred yards away.
The glass shattered in all directions - inside, outside, over the windshield, on the top of the car, and into the backseat. Very fortunately my head was turned away and I only got a small cut on my left wrist.
I guess it is possible this was a stray bullet from somewhere, but I didn't find a slug in the car or just outside.
Just thought I'd share this - I was relieved to find other people are having similar experiences.
June 24, 2005 @10 am
It was nice to find this website to know that it does happen to others as it was rather disconcerting to see the patio door spontaneously shatter. It does look like someone punched a hole in it but there was no one near it when it happened. The entire door is still holding up except for the large hole although it is in a million pieces. If touched, the whole thing would just crumple. The outside door is still intact as it is the other door beside. Very strange.
Our shower door just shattered randomly. I didn't see or hear anything, but now it's completely spierwebed. Glad I found this site to know we're not crazy, hauneted or sleepwalking or something.
The glass door to my deck shattered several hours ago and is still crackling away. All the pieces are intact like some bizarre spider web. Just the inner pane of glass; the outer pane is fine.
My daughter and son-inlaw live up in Northern California. A few days ago their very large patio door shattered for no apparent reason. The temperature in this city has been in the range of 3 digits. My son heard the noise first, and perhaps he will go on line and share just exactly what happen.
I work at a locally owned pet shop that specializes in fresh and saltwater fish.This morning I arrived to work and was the first one there. I noticed some water on the floor and upon closer inspection there was a small amount of glass and a beta fish. Once I looked up to where the fish should have been I found the rest of the bowl the fish had been in. It was in the spot it should have been.
So it seems the bowl just shattered on its own. I was the the last one to leave the previous evening so there was no one or thing that could have done this. Very interesting indeed. I'm figuring that some defect could have caused this as I've heard of similar occurances before. Oh, don't worry the beta is still alive! :)
This morning our shower door exploded 10 minutes after my son exited the room (luckily). A friend of ours, nearby, had a similar experience one year ago. We live in China, perhaps manufacturing standards are lower here... We plan to use safety or security film on all glass of this type in future. And use only glass that is Internationally certified...
I just came home tonight and was brushing my son's teeth in the bathroom upstairs when we hear this shattering noise. We first freaked out but then I turned the stairway lights on and went downstairs, since we were alone upstairs. To our surprise, I found my knick Knack shelf door broken in a million pieces on the floor. It was made of tempered glass and it literally exploded before it fell on the floor because I found broken pieces in every shelf. This is the 5th glass things that breaks in my house for the past 2 dyas, so I wonder if this is some sort of energy stagnated in my house. 1st a rock broke my husband's windshield on his way home from work, then my housekeeper broke one of our crystal decorations, then my daughter broke a little rose vase, then my son broke a halloween lamp. All fours had an explanation but the glass door was totally a mystery. No one was in the house and we did not have an earthquake. I wonder if it is related to Halloween tomorrow. Hahahahaha, it was scary.
Okay- yesterday I was studying at my kitchen table and I heard a pop that sounded like a balloon. I got up and saw that the back patio sliding door was shattering. At first I thought someone shot something at my window,(since I heard my dog bark right before it happened.) but nope. There was no evidence of a rock, bb, etc. I just stood there shocked. What would cause this? To me it's just wierd!
Had a heavy drinking glass of kool aid explode today. I was not there but came home to find the mess. Did not shatter, split in half, up and down and blew the two sides about 4 inches apart. Koolaid went at least 5 feet around there. The two pieces were still standing on the counter. About 70 degrees, in new mexico if that helps anyone. I do have some interesting pics if anyone wants to see email me taya_shilah@yahoo.com
earlier me and my wife was sitting in our livingroom and i went to put a glass in the sink i didnt set it down hard nor did it break at the time,i went to walk away and could hear the glass breaking i thought it was weird so i looked down and heard it crack so i jumped back and the glass exploded,i have never seen or heard of this before until it about hit me in the face, the glass was shattered into like crystal formation? we are still kinda freaked out about this, this site has been great now i know it happens to alot of people, it was about 70 degrees, still can't fiqure out why it did it? it wasnt hot nor cold in here, just to weird.
We came home today to fine the glass in our patio slider had shattered into a million pieces with no explanation. It's still popping like rice crispies as I'm typing this. The screen door on the outside shows no sign of the window being hit and no one was here at the time it happened. It's a single pane glass door so I can't rule out that it wasn't hit.
We live in Southern California, it wasn't a particularly hot day (75) but it did cool down quickly this evening. The door is in direct sunlight throughout the afternoon/evening. I believe it's original construction and approximately 30 years old. I suspect its a combination of the frame expanding/contracting over the last 30 years from direct sun [it can get to over 100 degrees in the summer] and constant sliding/slamming. The old aluminum frames always make a loud bang in the evening as the contract very quickly when the sun goes down. The window repair guys are coming tomorrow to fix it - $350. We're getting new windows installed in 2 months - figures that this would happen right before hand.
Just happened to me. It was a water glass that had remained in the kitchen sink for 2 days before I washed it. I washed it with natural water (not cold or warm), wiped it with a piece of cloth and put it in the cabinet. About 5 minutes later, I was in the living room watching TV, I heard something breaking. When I opened the cabinet, the glass had turned into a million of pieces, and the big pieces were still breaking... I was looking for an explanation (other than ghosts and spirits :-)) and the nickel inclusions convinced me (http://desiredcreations.com/Misc_SpontGlass.htm).
My husband and I were reading in the living room when a glass candle holder on the end table beside us exploded. Nothing fell on it and it had been weeks since it had been used. It did not fall over and looked as though it exploded from the inside out. We are both very freaked out by this.
I am a window Cleaner and have been cleaning this large glass roof for the past 6 years i actually go up on it but keep most of my weight in the side rail made of iron any way the story goes i cleaned it last saturday and the following friday one panel just exploded for no apparent reason very freaky that this can just happen for no reason when talking to someone about this they informed me that the same thing happened to another glass roof not long before only in that case 2 seperate panels exploded on differing dates left me a little shocked to think what may of unfolded a week before hand
I hate to say that this is not a one in a million chance, - like being struck by lightening. This has happened to two of our shower walls, one in the main house and one in a studio at the back of our section. The main house explosion happened while we were in the lounge and we heard a noise like a gunshot from the bathroom - same experience as everyone else, tiny pieces of glass shattered all over the place still popping and cracking. No one in the room at the time. My daughter was on the way to use the bathroom when it happened but I had stopped her to ask her a question. Had she been in the room at the time she would have been a mess. The back studio shower wall was found shattered the same was this morning by my husband. Once again no one in the room, or even the studio when it exploded. The back studio glass was four years old, the main house possibly eight. That doesn't sound like a once in a lifetime occurrence to me, sounds like a dangerous flaw. Someone mentioned location, well I live in Auckland New Zealand.
On February 16, 2008, around 6:00PM in Lacombe Louisiana USA.
I had just finished rinsing a glass coffee cup with tap water and placing it into our kitchen sink. The cup had been siting on top of our counter for at least 4 hours, so it was room temperature.
I stepped out on the patio and my wife was in the bedroom. All of a sudden my wife heard a loud Shatter-sound, like someone dropped a dish onto our ceramic tile floor. When she went into the
Kitchen she found the glass cup was shattered in the sink. Glass was spread as much as 10 feet away. We have no idea what caused the glass to explode. There were times when we placed the cup full of water, into the Microwave to heat it before pouring coffee into it. We had been doing this for 2 years.
The house temperature was about 68 degrees. There was no one else in the house. Weird!!!
Sunday afternoon 2/17/2008 my nephew opened the shower door to turn it on, then he closed it. He then opened it to get in and the shower door exploded into a billion pieces. He said it sounded like a gunshot. The shower had just been used twice the same morning by other family members. We have no idea how that could possibly happen. He said it shattered and then dropped to the shower floor bouncing everywhere including on his body, toilet, sink, and floor. He was shaking when we finally heard him screaming from upstairs. We are very lucky he only received minor cuts. He is still picking glass out of his feet. I'm lucky my 2 small children weren't in that bathroom at the time. Their play room is connected to that bathroom. Our home is 2 years old and where the bathroom is doesn't receive any direct sunlight or extreme changes in temperature. We live in Florida and it was around 80 degrees that morning. I'm nervous for the rest of my showers in the house. All but 1 have glass doors.
This morning after I drank A glass of water I was putting the emtpy glass in the sink when a glass beside it suddenly exploded (or imploded actually). The pieces jumped into the air with a "patak!" sound, kind of like a gunshot or a ballon like sound. The pieces were crystalized and were still cracking 15 mins after.
It was quite freaky as I still have an aversion to glassware. Some say it has something to do with spirits and such...I'm not sure what to believe as I cannot make any sense out of this.
I also experienced a similar thing yesterday. After doing my dishes (with tap water, not cold or hot) I left a glass cup on my sink to watch an interesting documentary on TV when I heard an explosion from the sink...I quickly noticed that the glass cup had shattered but what really shocked me was that some glass particles were as far as 3-4meters from where the cup was. Until I found this site today I was thinking that someone was probably attempting to shot me from the kitchen window but shot the cup instead coz the sound was loud and ugly.
We have had over a dozen drinking glasses simply cut in half with greater precision than could be cut buy human some are inexpensive thick bottom tumblers the kids use the others are tall and short costa boda fine glasses, its as if someone or something has cut the glass like a piece of pipe we sometimes hear it and sometimes we go to the cupboard to get a glass pick it up and only the top half comes or we notice the glass beside or behind is in 2 pieces but always still sitting as if nothing happened in one piece even if you do pick up the half you grab, you can put it back on top as if still one piece not even the smallest chip or crack they still hold water some even stop cracking 5 or ten mm from completely separating some even crack through under the clear cost boda sticker that is still on the glasses.I honestly don't know what's happening but am very open to any explanation as its almost unnatural that this happens the exact same way over a dozen times in a 3 year old house we've lived in only 8 months (the previous house is only 4 blocks away) NSW, Australia any reason or help would be greatly appreciated, the house was blessed after moving in now using ceramic mugs to drink from.
I have just searched on the topic of exploding shower screens and found this site. We had a similar experience to others and are now having a battle with our insurance company.
In november last year we were sitting in our lounge one evening when we heard a massive explosion somewhere in the house. We went to investigate and found that our shower screen had shattered into a million pieces that covered every inch of the bathroom. Also the force of the explosion had propelled the heavy metal frame from the wall and sent it about 4 feet across the room smashing some floor tiles as it landed. The shock of this turned into horror when we thought of how just a couple of hours earlier our two small granchildren had been in the bath and could have been seriously injured or killed.
The screen had been in place for 8 years and we have no explanation as to why it should suddenly explode like this, however the insurance company will only pay up if an 'expert' provides them with a reason. A couple of bathroom specialists have told them that this does sometimes happen but they want to know why it happened in our case - and noone can tell them that as noone was there and ther is no evidence other than a broken frame and a million pieces of glass.Has anyone else faced this dilema. We live in Leicester, England
At the table last night, a wine glass half-filled with room-temperatures red wine exploded during dinner. It spread tiny pieces of shattered glass 4-5 feet away - in only one direction - and wine flew 5-6 feet away in same direction. For those of you atttmpting to research this phenomenon, geographically or otherwise, this happened in Maine, at close to sea level, with normal temps inside the house and 40s outside in March.
4/15/2008, Silicon Valley, CA - 4:30am
We awoke to the sound of the shower door (spontaneously) exploding! It's a tiny bathroom (toilet, shower) so the glass was all over the place (still "exploding"). Thank goodness neither one of us was in there at the time.
Checked the news that morning - no earthquake - a there were no extreme fluctuations in temperature. We've lived in this rental for 13+ years now with the same shower. Might just be one of those things.
Then again, these "spontaneous" occurrences appear to be happening more frequently...it makes me wonder.
Today I was putting dishes in the dishwasher. I picked up a thick-bottomed tumbler to put it in and it exploded in my hand. I can understand if the tubler was hot and had gotten chiled quickly but that wasn't the case. The glass had not yet been put in the washer. Nor did it impact anything or did I handle it rough in anyway. Strange stuff huh.
In the club where I usually work, the glasses we have are usually really strong and you uaually can drop them on the floor without smashing them.
Last night as I was holding one of these glasses and it exploded in my hand. The glass broke into thousands of pieces which flew away from my hand and a high speed.
It sounded just like somone had threw a glass against a brick as hard as possible.
There was no glass directy below where it smashed, however all the tiny shards were spread over a 15ft radius. I had quite a few tiny cuts all over my arms, hand and face as a result of this phenomenon.
There were witnesses who agreed with me that I applied no sufficient force to the glass that would cause it to do that.
One girl I spoke to about this said that "It has happened to one of the staff before". She also thougt that it might have something to do with static of electricity, but I am unsure.
I think it may have something to do with the glasses expanding and contracting due to them being cleaned in extremely hot water.
I also dissagree with thinking that heating and cooling may have caused this because the glass that smashed had cooled naturally, and hundreds of times I have taken boiling hot glasses and filled them with ice and cold pepsi, which has never caused a glass to smash in my presence.
I'm proper stumped about this.
If anyone has a scientific reason as to why this happens, I would love to know.
My son called me at work today, and told me he had come home from school to find one half of the shower door had exploded into a million pieces, and covered most of the tub, the floor and even into the hallway outside the bathroom. The house had been empty for about six hours. I have been trying since to understand how glass could just spontaneously explode, until I found this site. Without a blow to the glass, it leaves little except, resonant frequencies, or something similar created by sound. We have two dogs, but the hallway door leading to the bathroom was closed tight. The two track mounted wheel assemblies had flown in two different directions, and only one still had a small piece of glass still in it. Pretty scary stuff.
Actually it was me who smashed Dave's shower door. He owes me $50 from the Kentucky Derby, and hasn't payed up. So i snuck into his house and smashed his shower door into a million pieces. So much for resonant frequencies.
A similar thing just happened to me. I was having lunch and was holding my glass, having just taken a sip from it, when it suddenly shattered in my hand (and quite loudly too). The shards scattered all over my plate and the table. I only got one or two small cuts, thankfully.
The glass had been sitting in the dishwasher for about half a day, but it wasn't hot or anything, more like room-temperature. I have NO idea why it exploded like that, that was really weird.
On May 23rd in my kitchen no one was inside. And on the stove there was a frying pan and on the front of the stove top it was just sitting there and beside it was stationary glass lid. That with no one near it and probably 75 degrees not like the temperatures really even mattered but it just broke in a very loud noise. Wasn't the type of noise you'd here normally the glass didn't fly all over the room but it just exploded inside of the pan and around the counter and some on the stove all around it. For some reason unexplained just like most of the experiences here. Thats my experience thanks for reading.
i was @ my aunts cutting her grass when i was done i started edgeing when i was done i noticed a sound like some one was popping popcorn but i was in front of my aunts front door so i got curious WTF is this sound comming from then i noticed the security door bottom storm glass was shatterd so i called my cousin kadena to the front and it was shattered all over and makeing a popping sound from what i saw if you stare at the shattered glass long enough you can see the glass crack so after that i got the blower and made the glass fall out to prepair to clean it now i got glass all on the floor in between the two door now what i saw with next was really weard???
(i saw the glass jump and pop wierd huh)
i thought i was tripping cause it was hot as hell that day
so i went to clean it up before my aunt got home but still to this day i have no clue why the glass poped and jumped like that i guess i didnt give it time to explode cause i went ahead and knocked it out to get it up (very wierd)
my name is jerome call me if you have any answer as to why this happened i surely would like an answer to why it did what it did 773-440-0600
Oh well, I guess you can add Massachusetts to your list of the "unexplainable exploding glass phenomenon". My wife called me today to report that on the instant she walked into the house she heard an extremely loud CRASH that sounded like it came from upstairs. To her dismay she found the exact thing that everyone is describing here. The shower door had exploded and glass covered the entire bathroom floor 12X12 bathroom including the little toilet room next door. She also described the snap, crackle and pop of the glass as it continued to shatter for at least fifteen minutes after the original break. Interestingly, the hinges are still intact and have shattered chunks still in the brackets. If someone had been in the shower it would have been a modern day remake of the "psycho" movie complete with blood swirling down the drain.
The tempered glass must have some potential energy stored up in it and I have to think that the frequency/resonance theory might be the reason. If you think about it we have probably about 1000 cell phone conversations running through us right now..........
I am relieved I am not the only one to have had an exploding shower screen. In response to Barbara of Leicester, I too live in Leicester and the same thing happened to me this week. My shower cubicle had been fitted 7 years ago and had a sliding door, the glass in the door spontaneously exploded and lifted the frame completely off the runners at the top. I had showered about 4 hours previously and had not been in the bathroom since, it went with a huge bang and shot glass in all directions which continued to crackle for a while afterwards. I am just glad no-one was hurt. I am also very wary of getting into a shower cubicle again.
My name is Jacob I am 15 years old and today a very weird thing happened. My dad unpluged the satlite dish and the phone lines so i couldnt watch tlevision, talk on the phone or go on internet. When my parents left I went and repluged all of those wires so I could have something to do. Right after that I went down stairs and repluged the phone in the basment office and conected myself to internet. I was chating and liscening to some Heavy Metal music at full blast (loud enough to not hear a phone ring) and all of a sudden I hear a huge explosion. At first i tought it might be my dog that fell down the stairs, but he didnt so I went to check it out and I could hear this poping sound when I entered the bathroom and there were peices of glass everywhere and I could hear this poping sound. I could not beleive what I was seing, the shower my dad had made of 1 inch glass had completely exploded in millions of peices and only half of it was left standing even though it was also cracked everywhere in milllions of peices...Later after have read Greg's story my dad told me that the wires for our downstair's telephones go right under the upstairs shower where the glass broke...
This morning, roughly 9:45 A.M. in Minneapolis,after a hail storm yesterday (one of the biggest hail storms I had ever seen-and have no idea if this has anything to do with it) our stereo cabinet which is made of wood and tempered glass had one of the glass shelves inside the cabinet explode. The shelf that exploded only had a cable box on it that was slightly warm to the touch. We went upstairs to discover this and the tiny shards of glass were still crackling.
I see a lot of people have shared experiences here,(hey..I'm one of em!) just wondering if anyone could write in an actual theory to what exactly causes this.
Just searching for answers...
Thank you in advance
A man was staring at a wine glass at it exspoled some one needs to reserch this and if you can find a reasseon and show the new persident of the united stats u could be come one of the most smartes pepole in the world........ good luck
I too have just had an odd one... just 15 minutes ago, a tall vase containing nothing but a few plastic lillie's - made a loud bang. The kind of sound you get when you place a glass tumbler onto a glass table. At a closer look, it seems that the entire 1.5 Inch thick base of the vase has cracked through and through!!! Soo bizzare - like the rest of you have also said, nothing was near it at the time, so vibrations on the table that it was stood on - and its an ambient 28 degress C in my apartment. Kinda freaked me out a little!
I've got a story that happened when I worked on a cinema.One day I went to open some glass doors for the costumers to go out of the cinema. When I put my right hand on the handler to star to open the door slowly the glass door brooke instantly and completly falling on peaces on the floor. When this happened one peace o glass cut my right hand. Later one colleag of mine told me it was a source of glass cancer the reason for the phenomenon. I made a search and found this:
"The Achille Heel of a Wonderful Material: Toughened Glass
In recent years there have been a number of sensational reports in the media about “glass cancer” and “spontaneous glass fracture”, with stories relating to “glass raining down from highrise buildings”.
These stories refer to incidents where toughened glass windows shatter without warning. Although it is only recently that this so-called "spontaneous" failure of toughened glass has come to public attention, it has been known about since 1960. These failures are due to the presence of nickel sulphide inclusions. In fact, nickel sulphide inclusions in glass are quite rare. In a typical glass batch there will be one 5 µg inclusion per tonne of glass (an average concentration of 5 parts in 1012).
Though rare, the nickel sulphide inclusions are very troublesome and potentially dangerous when present in toughened glass. The reason for all the trouble is a delayed phase transformation in nickel sulphide. Nickel sulphide crystals have a high temperature and a low temperature form. The dense crystal form at high temperature swells on cooling to make a less dense crystal form at low temperatures.
In ordinary annealed glass nickel sulphide inclusions do not cause problems because the transformation occurs as the glass is cooled slowly during manufacture. However, the transformation is sluggish and when glass is rapidly cooled as part of the toughening process, the nickel sulphide remains trapped in its high temperature form until some years later when its transformation breaks the glass"
Wow, I always thought it was because of high winds and twisting... Oh, wait, that was the Hancock tower which is what I always think of when glass breaks without any apparent reason.
The treated glass theory is interesting, although I'm curious as to why it doesn't seem more prevalent on the 'net.
The same thing happened to one of my favorite scotch glasses long ago. Sadly, of the set of 4 cut glass lowballs my wife gave me about 10 years ago, they are all gone now (one albeit to only an edge chip, but I refuse to use glasses with chips).
Well, this morning at about 2am, my bf and I were woken up by a HUGE glass shattering crash coming from inside our apartment. We both got up to find what it was and came into the kitchen. There we found the 9x13 baking dish I had used to make brownies 2 days ago, shattered into pieces on top of the microwave. That is where I had set it about 5 or 6 hours before it had shattered. All the dish was still on the microwave, except for the little bit that had been hanging off because all of it didn't fit on top. Very weird. I'm thinking it was the radiation energy. But I had never heard of that happening before...
This evening, whilst preparing a barbeque, my daughter sat an empty pint glass (Guiness logo) onto the glass table top on the patio.
A short time after, she heard a bang and turned from the BBQ to see the glass shatter into many parts.
There was nobody near the glass, and there was nothing in the glass or on the table.
I am pretty sure Guinness glasses are not toughened, so this is definitely a mystery. If anyone does know of a scientific explanation for this phenomena, please let me know.
Tog
I was sure glad to find this website to know that this kind of thing is normal and not some freak occurence at my house.
I woke up this morning to the sound of glass shattering and jumped out of bed to invesigate. In the kitchen I heard a tinging sound coming from inside one of the cabinets... I opened the door and glass fell out. Upon further investigation I found that the middle bowl of three nested glass bowls had shattered into thousands of pieces. I guess this is another instance of spontaneous glass shattering. Luckily, in this instance, the glass breaker on my alarm did not trigger...
A friend of mine sent me this link to an article about a glass plane... in the article there is some information about the physical state of glass: it is not liquid, nor solid and is in constant movement... perhaps an explanation for these "random" glass shattering incidents.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,370864,00.html
Hey, Today I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth and I heard a glass smash, I went in to investigate, where to my surprise, a glass which had not been touched for hours had shattered into a million tiny pieces and left all over my room, it was a Guinness pint glass… Not toughened, with no cracks or chips… this is so weird among the many bizarre things that have been happening in my house lately!! An answer to this weirdness would be great!!
It happened me & my partnerless than 10 mins ago..Scared the damm hell outta us! sat in lounge heard a noise that sounded like a car crash in kitchen!..Both run out thinking my cat hard broke something big..& all it was was 1 of those thick Coca cola glasses with the emblem on..It was on the work surface with a bit of glass on the floor & was like a broken windscreen effect & still making popping noises!..Ive had paranormal activity in this house & was worried maybe it was that As my house was of `Normal` temp Not hot not cold.. WEIRED!!!
I had similar experience yesterday, and it absolutely freaked em out! I got home from work to find my glass sink
(2 inch glass) all shattered in very small pieces over the bathroom. There were even some pieces on top of the window frame! I was absoultely puzzled, and thought that someone had broken into the house and did this on purpose! However, nothing has been touched! But it looked like someone hammered the sink for quite some time!!
I am just glad that more people have seen this, and I don't have burglars or ghosts in the house! :)
Over the weekend, my husband and myself were taking out two glass shower doors each, at the same time. I was leading him to the door and CRASH, without sudden or jarring movements my glass exploded between my hands, spraying glass in every direction. A thought later, my husbands’ glass exploded! Our kid saw the whole crazy explosion. What a dangerous mess, even with safety glass.
I was at home a few weeks ago and my girlfriend was there with me we just had some diner we had a mixed salad in a bowl and some pasta on a plate I used the same salad and dressing as I always do we finished eating then watched a movie all of a sudden we heard a noise I turned the lights on and the bowl that was sitting on the table had exploded all over the floor of the living room we tried to see if anything had hit it or if it had fallen but there was nothing around to hit it and there was glass all over the table where it was sitting.. I have had a few more incodents ie plugs being pulled from the wall computers being turned on by themself but this was realy creepy..
I was so glad to find this site. I was lying in bed one morning half asleep when I heard a massive smash, I thought next door had thrown a vase or something against my wall where my head was. It wasn't until later that I noticed the empty drinking glass that had been on my CD cabinet for a couple of weeks was 'sliced' in half. It looked like it could have been done with a tool because of the precision of it. I found the top half of the glass next to my bed, it must have spun accross my room. I couldn't believe that such a tremendous noise could have come from that.
I've been thinking it was a spirit presence all this time, as it's not the first time spooky things have happened in my house. There's some convincing scientific explanations on this site though. I'm from south east England and the glasses were bought cheap from one of our most famous homestores beginning with 'I'. The remaining glasses have all broken while washing up...
We've just cleared the kitchen up after an exploding glass incident... Was quite scary. I have a few hours ago done the washing up with v v hot water and the items were dried on the sink, just 15 mins ago I got up to get my husband a glass of milk and choose a pint glass (one I've had for a couple of years) from the sink. As I literally put my hand on the glass it exploded with a bang all over the kitchen into cubed tiny pieces. It gave me a huge shock and felt and looked like someone had aimed a gun and shot at the glass through my kitchen window, very strange. The temperature is 24 degrees and its 11pm.
An engineer answers: Jay Whittaker 2004-12-10 was right in that safety glass was invented to avoid the sharp shards from normal glass. It is heat treated or tempered so that the faces are in compression and the core is in tension, which makes it very strong. The stored strain energy ensures that if fractured, it breaks into tiny fragments - considered relatively safe.
Unfortunately this energy also propels the fragments at high speed, sounding like a gunshot, and creating a hazard to eyes, skin etc. It also spreads the fragments through the room, into furniture, bedding etc - very hard to clean up, and an ongoing hazard to pets, bare feet, skin etc.
Spontaneous disintegration can occur - cause unknown. There are plenty of documented cases - it is not so rare. can be very startling.
What are the alternatives to tempered glass? Plain window "float" glass, if broken, forms sharp pieces, which can cut arteries etc. Laminated glass has a layer of plastic between two sheets of glass, and cannot break spontaneously. If impacted it can only crack, and cannot form any fragments at it remains in place, so is much safer. However it is much weaker than tempered glass, and so might crack in normal use. Polycarbonate (plastic) is another alternative, light and safe, but will get scratched in normal use. On balance, I now recommend laminated glass.
In the middle of the night tonight, I was awakened by what I thought was a huge thunder and a lightning stike just outside my house. But it wasn't raining. I soon discovered that my 15 year old shower panel had completely disintegrated. I also was in a state of shock - it really rattled me. I am also greatly relieved by this website.
I was driving along in my 8 year old mini-van yesterday, just minding my own business, not much traffic, going 30-35 mph in the city...when suddenly from out of the blue there came from behind me, a terriffic BOOM! I had brand new tires with the nubs still intact, so I was very confused as to what had just happened, and I was very shaken up. I slowed the car immediately, then turned on a small residential road. I hopped out of my car and to my amazement, found the entire small side rear window completely gone! The middle side window was still breaking as has been described previously. The explosion seemed to be from the inside out. I was very confused. The car driving behind me turned into the street to see if I was okay. I asked him what happened. He reported that as I drove, the glass in the window simply exploded and shot away from the car, just like THAT! He was shaken up too!! Stranger things happen only in the twilight zone!
My shower door exploded this morning for no apparent reason, we had not taken a shower this morning, it was not too hot or too cold. I was in my bathroom getting ready for work and all of the sudden I heard what I thought was a gun shot in my house.
I turned toward the door of the bathroom and that is when I noticed that one of my shower doors had exploded and I was standing on a floor full of glass. The glass shot about 10'out of the shower covering the floor with glass. I was not hurt, thank goodness.
I stood there for a couple of seconds and could hear the "popping" noise. I could not figure out what was causing the "popping" noise until now.
Everyone I talk to has never heard of a glass shower door exploding.
I am glad to know I am not crazy.
I've just found this website and am very glad others have had a strange experience with glass. About 10 minutes ago i was sitting at the dinner table waiting for a programme to download onto my laptop when a flat thick vase, about 5cm away from my laptop, with unlit candles in it split in half exactly, made a loud bang too! I almost jumped out of my skin. I was facing a window and thought someone tried to shoot me but hit the vase, that's how loud it was. So I'm glad to know this kinda thing does happen.
So check this out...
After a hard day's training of capoeira, I set down my glass of Argentinian red wine so that I could admire the Caribbean sunset. When I turned my back, I heard a pop and realized the wine had nearly exploded all over my roommate's laptop and my super cool Comcel cellphone. I stood open-mouthed, my first instinct was to Google this rare event on my roommate's undamaged computer. Ta Da! Here's a whole website with same stories, but no explanations. Peace Out.
Mamita, Santa Marta, Colombia
I also had an exploding shower door yesterday afternoon - a somewhat supernatural experience. No one was in the shower or even in the bathroom at the time it occurred. Bizarre and scary all at once. Is it time to convert to a shower curtain??
Sounded like a gun shot, and to my amazement my patio door was in a thousand pieces. The door is a thermal glass door about 28 yrs old. Only thing that was different on this day was very high humidity, 90%...Would have thought that such an occurence might happen when the glass is newly tempered, but after 28 years you would figure that there would be less pressure in the glass.
Very bizarre.
Jack
9-25-08 1800. After dinner I decided to water plants in my front yard. We have a full-length glass exterior door and an interior steel door, both of which we keep locked. When I opened the steel door, the glass door crumpled and fell into a million pieces at my feet. The doors are in a protected enclosed vestibule and there was no one around. We live in a very quiet neighborhood and our house is only 10 years old. There was no logical reason for this to happen. It is calming to know that similar bizarre occurrences have happened. Thanks.
It was very glad to find this site.
Today at 7:15 pm, the shower room glass exploded spontaneously, and nobody was in the bathroom, all windows were closed, and I could't figure out a rational explanation.
Good to see it's more frequent than I thought.
This explains it all. :)
http://www.oldcastleglass.com/design_criteria_spontaneous.php
I'll add my story - this afternoon we heard a "thud" at our front door. When we checked it out, the glass in our one-year-old exterior storm door was cracked into tiny pieces, over the entire surface. When my husband opened the front door (which is also full glass) the storm door shattered inward. The glass continued to snap, crackle and pop throughout the cleanup.
Now we do live on the main street of a small town and we get our fair share of traffic. The house is only set back about ten feet from the road. There could have been a random piece of gravel or someone's uber-noisy Harley going by, but we never had trouble with our last storm door and we never saw a rock or a point of impact on the glass (before it imploded).
In case anyone Googles this later, it is...well, was, an Anderson 4000 series door...
So relieved to find this site. Early this morning, a little past 6, I was doing my routine dishwashing. I placed a thick whiskey glass on the counter for rinsing and proceeded to do the rest of the dishes. A sudden explosion shattered the glass into smithereen. My first thought was that someone shot into the house and my life was in danger. I ducked, looked around and there was no one! But the panic produced an instant urge to move my bowel. Why did this happen? Can any science explain it? Thanks.