ELEPHANTS ON GLASS

Evening Star, Issue 22448, 19 September 1936, Page 21

ELEPHANTS ON GLASS

Recently, to test the strength of a new British toughened glass known as “armour-plate,” three baby elephants and three men stood on a platform suspended from a sheet of this glass only lin thick. Though the total weight supported was over five tons, the glass did not break; it merely bent A Hlb weight dropped from a height of one foot on to a piece of ordinary plate glass a quarter of an inch thick will break it, causing needle-like splin ters and jagged ends. To break “ armour-plate ” glass of similai thickness the drop would have to be 10ft, When this new glass does break there are no sharp edges; it simply falls into small blunt pieces like bath salts. “ Armour-plate ” has the same lasting transparency and undistorted vision as clear plate glass and it is unaffected by changes of temperature however unevenly applied. “ Armourplate ” glass can actually bo twisted 15deg before it will break. Besides its suitability for windscreens, car windows, portholes, oven doors, and hospital equipment, its abnormal strength and resistance to changes of temperature should find ever fresh opportunities for usefulness.