Another company (Revisalt, an university spinoff in Freiberg/Germany) claims that time and cost for producing such chemical strengthened glass has been much improved:
> While the Superfest glass is by far more durable than normal glass, when they shatter – the burst into a million fine pieces and are a total nightmare to clean up. I’m not sure if it’s because of their potassium chloride coating or because they are made to be super thin, my advice is to not drop them.
maybe the same reason [the super hard] prince rupert's drops explode. really high internal stress.
Unsurprising, but I'd still totally buy a Superfest glass set with this in mind. I've owned glassware that was both fragile and prone to exploding into jagged particles, and it wasn't very cheap, either.
I have some toughened cocktail glasses made by a commercial (i.e. for bars and restaurants) company called Utopia.
As I was making cocktails one evening I accidentally knocked an empty glass from my
kitchen worktop onto my stone-tiled kitchen floor. I was astonished when the glass bounced on its rim and rebounded back up in the air. I somehow managed to catch it. Not the slightest damage. Five years later that glass is still in use.
I bought a box of 12 because that was the smallest quantity they came in, but normally only use two. So I think that box will last me for 20 years or more. They are incredible.
We have a bunch of "duralex" glasses that are similarly resistant. We went to buy some more a while ago and I'm sad to say all the new ones have shattered since. The old ones are still going strong though!
In the EU we have, since decades, the "Arcoroc" brand and it does glasses and plates that really do not break easily. As teenagers we'd have fun with others who weren't aware: we'd take a pile of plates in our left hand and tell the other person "catch them all, quick!" and throw with our right hand plates one after another.
Invariably he'd miss one then many and be in a state of panic and yet none would break when hitting the kitchen floor.
Silly teenagers we were. I see that brand is still around. It's solid.
I have a set of French Vereco (now Duralex I believe) dishes and bowls[1] from the 60s or 70s which I'm the third generation in my family to use and own.
The tempered glass is almost indestructible as well. I can only remember one time when one of them broke when I dropped it (like with Superfest it'd smash into a million pieces).
You regularly find similar Vereco glassware in thrift stores and flea markets. Mainly because it's almost indestructible. Mine are getting a bit scratched up by now so I'm considering getting new tableware but it's kind of hard replacing something that still works perfectly fine.
You can buy vintage Vereco glassware for 400 EUR/8 pc -- probably less in a thrift store --, or new Duralex glasses for like 40 EUR/12 pc. They're not fancy and they're not expensive. I've stopped doing the party trick of intentionally dropping them to show how sturdy they are because they do break sometimes and it's a huge mess.
Duralex glasses are impressively durable. I am not quite sure how they make them, but they bounce several times when dropped. I don’t recall them exploding in tiny shards either, but I may be misremembering.
Incidentally. They seem to be close to bankruptcy (again) and to be looking for investors.
It seems like everyone I know owns at least one piece from their Beau Rivage (swirly brown) set they bought in the 90's. And Auchan had a huge sale of them (the same pattern!) a few years back.
People get so into this romantic fantasy of sturdy glass. Simultaneously completely blinded to the downsides and believing that we don't have, CAN'T POSSIBLY have, widely available modern equivalents, because "evil capitalism".
Y'all, it's called Corelle, and you can buy it literally everywhere. It's extremely available. Ubiquitous even. And it's just not worth it for the same reason given right there at the very end in the epilogue:
> While the Superfest glass is by far more durable than normal glass, when they shatter – they burst into a million fine pieces and are a total nightmare to clean up. I’m not sure if it’s because of their potassium chloride coating or because they are made to be super thin, my advice is to not drop them.
The reality is that the failure mode absolutely sucks. Dropping one and having it survive is a neat party trick, but all it takes is one break for the observer to completely swear off the experience forever.
> The reality is that the failure mode absolutely sucks. Dropping one and having it survive is a neat party trick, but all it takes is one break for the observer to completely swear off the experience forever.
I'd much rather sweep up the equivalent of very coarse sand than deal with shards of glass. There's no need to keep the dog away, or wrap the stuff in a newspaper so you don't shred the bin bag etc. You just sweep it up and are done with it.
Yeah, also came here to point out Corelle. For many years I had a set of Corelle plates and bowls and such that they sold at Target, cheap and aimed at college students.
Likely there's a very mundane reason it hasn't replaced all standard glassware, such as being slightly more expensive or having limited design shapes/forms (thinking of the plates). This doesn't exactly strike me as "evil capitalism," just "throwaway culture". The difference is the consumer makes that choice when both options are available, but one is cheaper.
I think it's still possible to source this kind of glass as sheets – https://www.delphiglass.com/oceanside-compatible-glass-96-co... seems to come pretty close in appearance – but I can't seem to find anyone selling consumer products made out of it. (Unless they make replicas and sell them as "authentic Jugendstil ca. 1908")
I don't get the Capitalism bashing aspect of the article. You can find reinforced glassware, its just more expensive so you don't hear a lot about it. It's not planed obsolescence, its customer preference.
I make pumps that are 5 to 10 times expensive than Chinese pumps and 5 to 10 times durable, I sell 1/10 as much as Chinese pumps. This is restricting research in improving pump, instead all research goes in reducing the cost.
In this article, the author makes the claim that very hard glass could not have been invented under capitalism, because capitalists are too focused on things breaking and having to be replaced. Which is ridiculous for any number of reasons, as is the implication that products developed under the economic model of the GDR were typically durable and long-lasting. It seems to be common for people to be both confused about what capitalism and socialism are, and very confident about what they represent.
> It all started when I was browsing through some film developing chemicals at one of my preferred photo shops (Fotoimpex).
This must be a pretty old article, as Fotoimpex have renovated and frustratingly removed almost their entire storefront - you can't really browse their merchandise anymore. I've found I have to order through their website despite the store being 30 mins away.
I actually have a couple of those Superfest glasses - they were in the house I bough in 2021 (which was full of junk and generall a bit messy). But I have no idea how they got here as the house is in western germany.
Anyone who grew up in France will fondly remember Duralex glasses - made of thick tempered glass, they are practically indestructible. They're still available, they just fell out of fashion because capitalism affords us the luxury of choice. Consumers prioritise factors other than durability, because they can afford to.
Here in the UK (and I believe in the US) there was a peculiar fad in the 1970s for gas stations to give away a free glass with the purchase of a tank of fuel. Such profligacy would be unimaginable under communism, not for any philosophical reason, but simply because they lacked the productive capacity.
Partially true - capitalism will give you what you choose through your actual behavior of making a purchase rather than what you say you prefer or wish you preferred. I bought LED lights for my house back when they were $30/bulb and few people even talked about CFLs. My reason? I am super lazy about changing lightbulbs, especially in inconvenient places like a fixture in the middle of a staircase. Many years later I sold the house with original set of lights still working. I am similarly lazy about cleaning up glass shards from floor or dishwasher, but this one will not help, when it shatters it shatters into a bigger mess. Anyway, if consumers started to demand durability, market would respond, but most want pretty glasses at low price. No economic system is a match for human stupidity and on the other hand very smart people would make any economic system work by modifying it to be practical (add some social safety net and environmental protection to capitalism, turn socialism into hybrid system that also includes free market).
Capitalism gets people to buy tons of unnecessary and unhealthy crap, that's for sure. (Like $150 running shoes, and sugary drinks and junk food that support the diabetes industry.)
But you're claiming something different. What's an example of a "nice thing" we'd enjoy today except for those evil capitalists blocking the path?
[+] [-] lispm|1 year ago|reply
https://www.soulbottles.de/en/ultraglass
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulkupfer/ultraglass-s...
Recent update:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulkupfer/ultraglass-s...
The research for this was done at the University of Bayreuth: https://www.glas.uni-bayreuth.de/en/projects/strongbottles/i...
German TV reported about the background here, 20:45 onwards:
https://www.3sat.de/wissen/nano/240315-sendung-epigenetik-ar...
[+] [-] lispm|1 year ago|reply
https://www.cfh.de/en/neues-investment-revisalt-gmbh/
https://revisalt.com/en/
[+] [-] leeoniya|1 year ago|reply
maybe the same reason [the super hard] prince rupert's drops explode. really high internal stress.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xe-f4gokRBs
[+] [-] formerly_proven|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] fr4nkr|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] saaaaaam|1 year ago|reply
As I was making cocktails one evening I accidentally knocked an empty glass from my kitchen worktop onto my stone-tiled kitchen floor. I was astonished when the glass bounced on its rim and rebounded back up in the air. I somehow managed to catch it. Not the slightest damage. Five years later that glass is still in use.
I bought a box of 12 because that was the smallest quantity they came in, but normally only use two. So I think that box will last me for 20 years or more. They are incredible.
[+] [-] Doxin|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] sss111|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] TacticalCoder|1 year ago|reply
Invariably he'd miss one then many and be in a state of panic and yet none would break when hitting the kitchen floor.
Silly teenagers we were. I see that brand is still around. It's solid.
[+] [-] schappim|1 year ago|reply
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEvBpjCOBu0
[+] [-] tommiegannert|1 year ago|reply
What a loaded headline.
[+] [-] ginko|1 year ago|reply
The tempered glass is almost indestructible as well. I can only remember one time when one of them broke when I dropped it (like with Superfest it'd smash into a million pieces).
You regularly find similar Vereco glassware in thrift stores and flea markets. Mainly because it's almost indestructible. Mine are getting a bit scratched up by now so I'm considering getting new tableware but it's kind of hard replacing something that still works perfectly fine.
[1] Like this: https://l-art-copenhagen.com/products/526194
[+] [-] morsch|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] kergonath|1 year ago|reply
Incidentally. They seem to be close to bankruptcy (again) and to be looking for investors.
[+] [-] Agingcoder|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] orthoxerox|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] BugsJustFindMe|1 year ago|reply
Y'all, it's called Corelle, and you can buy it literally everywhere. It's extremely available. Ubiquitous even. And it's just not worth it for the same reason given right there at the very end in the epilogue:
> While the Superfest glass is by far more durable than normal glass, when they shatter – they burst into a million fine pieces and are a total nightmare to clean up. I’m not sure if it’s because of their potassium chloride coating or because they are made to be super thin, my advice is to not drop them.
The reality is that the failure mode absolutely sucks. Dropping one and having it survive is a neat party trick, but all it takes is one break for the observer to completely swear off the experience forever.
Google "corelle exploded".
[+] [-] Doxin|1 year ago|reply
I'd much rather sweep up the equivalent of very coarse sand than deal with shards of glass. There's no need to keep the dog away, or wrap the stuff in a newspaper so you don't shred the bin bag etc. You just sweep it up and are done with it.
[+] [-] forgetfreeman|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] mNovak|1 year ago|reply
Likely there's a very mundane reason it hasn't replaced all standard glassware, such as being slightly more expensive or having limited design shapes/forms (thinking of the plates). This doesn't exactly strike me as "evil capitalism," just "throwaway culture". The difference is the consumer makes that choice when both options are available, but one is cheaper.
[+] [-] samatman|1 year ago|reply
https://www.toyo.sasaki.co.jp/e/brand/fine-crystal/
[+] [-] ahf8Aithaex7Nai|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] yorwba|1 year ago|reply
I think it's still possible to source this kind of glass as sheets – https://www.delphiglass.com/oceanside-compatible-glass-96-co... seems to come pretty close in appearance – but I can't seem to find anyone selling consumer products made out of it. (Unless they make replicas and sell them as "authentic Jugendstil ca. 1908")
[+] [-] jpgvm|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] pxmpxm|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] drdrek|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] iamgopal|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] karaterobot|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] rkachowski|1 year ago|reply
This must be a pretty old article, as Fotoimpex have renovated and frustratingly removed almost their entire storefront - you can't really browse their merchandise anymore. I've found I have to order through their website despite the store being 30 mins away.
[+] [-] fmajid|1 year ago|reply
https://www.ancient-origins.net/artifacts-ancient-technology...
[+] [-] amai|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] kiney|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] maronato|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] rlhf|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|1 year ago|reply
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[+] [-] dailykoder|1 year ago|reply
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[+] [-] formerly_proven|1 year ago|reply
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[+] [-] jdietrich|1 year ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duralex
Here in the UK (and I believe in the US) there was a peculiar fad in the 1970s for gas stations to give away a free glass with the purchase of a tank of fuel. Such profligacy would be unimaginable under communism, not for any philosophical reason, but simply because they lacked the productive capacity.
[+] [-] kolinko|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] cat_plus_plus|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] hilux|1 year ago|reply
But you're claiming something different. What's an example of a "nice thing" we'd enjoy today except for those evil capitalists blocking the path?
[+] [-] nolongerthere|1 year ago|reply