Bottles cracking AFTER coming out of the ground

[UnderMiner]

It is rare; thus, how notable the video.

I am mainly curious about the chronology of the video. Was the bottle immediately extracted as portrayed on camera? Or, did it lie in the sun on the surface for awhile before the extraction was recreated for the camera? If the bottle lay in the sun building pressure before being re-submerged in cold water for an reenactment, that is quite a different situation from what is presented.

Taking the video at face value, as a true extraction from in situ conditions, then I'm certain that pressure was already elevated in that bottle before it was brought into the warm air and heat of the digger's hand. Microbial processes in the bottle's contents probably contributed most of the gas pressure. If the bottle was extracted from more than a foot submerged under water, the pressure of the water itself was at least half a pound per square inch. There are so many variables in non-homogeneous soil that I don't know how one would even begin to calculate the ground pressure; but there was undoubtedly some that the bottle was under before the pit was excavated. The form of the bottle also contributed to the failure--a cylinder form would be much stronger inherently, even a square cross-section would, than the two broad panels of a whiskey flask shape. Bringing the bottle into the warmer and lower-pressure environment was just a classic "last straw" failure.

The first thing I thought of when I saw that video was that the organic contents had been decomposing and producing gasses for 130+ years which built up pressure due to the tight cork. Combine this with the thin glass and temperature differential and it became a bomb.

 

[Johnny M]

The first thing I thought of when I saw that video was that the organic contents had been decomposing and producing gasses for 130+ years which built up pressure due to the tight cork. Combine this with the thin glass and temperature differential and it became a bomb.

Totally in agreement with you there. Guaranteed that liquid inside had fermented big time in the sealed bottle. I wish I could have read the

The first thing I thought of when I saw that video was that the organic contents had been decomposing and producing gasses for 130+ years which built up pressure due to the tight cork. Combine this with the thin glass and temperature differential and it became a bomb.

Totally in agreement there. Looks like it fermented big time in there and that 1 degree temp increase after it was dug was the last straw. I still can't believe how lucky that guy was that the thing didn't hit him in the frigging neck. Darn near decapitate you with that power!

 

[sandchip]

Blows my mind how you see collectors take early, colored pontiled bottles from a warm house, and set them outside on the deck railing in the snow to take pictures. No way in hell would I do that.

 

[Still]

Blows my mind how you see collectors take early, colored pontiled bottles from a warm house, and set them outside on the deck railing in the snow to take pictures. No way in hell would I do that.

For real

 

[Bixby Bill]

Years ago I had dug a quart size Langley`s Bitters, I had washed that and the other bottles I dug in room temp water after they sat over night to get to be at room temp also. About 6 hours later I heard a loud PING, and found a large crack in the Langleys. I think that in the dump, the bottles can be under pressure from the weight of the dirt or ash on top of them, and when they are released from that pressure, they could crack, especially if the glass is thin or has any defects in it.