The behaviour of glass bottles under internal hydrostatic pressure has been studied. Three commercial beer bottle designs were investigated by four different methods of experimental stress analysis, namely, photoelastic, electric strain gauge, brittle coating, and brittle model methods. The "fixation" or "stress-freezing" method of three-dimensional photoelastic stress analysis employing Fosterite models has been applied to the study of glass bottles apparently for the first time. By this method, extensive measurements of the surface stress distributions have been made and are presented in graphical form. Other tests corroborate these results and illustrate the characteristics of bottles under internal pressure, including the effects of certain elements of bottle design. Results obtained by all four methods correlate well and should find valuable and practical applications in similar studies on other types of glass containers.
