Prince's drop of rum. The mystery of Prince Rupert's mysterious drops has been revealed
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Today I found something new and interesting for you, although perhaps it’s new only for me, but it will definitely be interesting for everyone - Prince Rupert’s drops. Let's figure out what these drops are and why they are interesting...
What are Prince Rupert Drops
Prince Rupert Drops are glass drops with a thin tail that are created by placing molten glass in water. And the interesting thing about them is that they are almost impossible to crush, trample, break or destroy in any other way accessible to people, but this applies only to the drop itself, but it also has a thin tail, in which the vulnerability of a seemingly indestructible thing is hidden, and if it break, then a real glass explosion occurs. See for yourself how they unsuccessfully try to crush Prince Rupert’s drop with a hydraulic press:
and how it easily explodes if the thin tip is damaged:
Well, an interesting effect?
Let's figure out how such an interesting result is obtained? To do this, you need to understand how Prince Rupert's drops are made.
Prince Rupert drops how to make
In order to make Prince Rupert drops, you need to place molten glass in water. When molten glass enters cold water, it hardens very quickly with the simultaneous accumulation of enormous internal stress. Moreover, cooling occurs at least quickly, but not instantly, so when the surface layer has already cooled, hardened and decreased in volume, the inner part of the drop, let’s call it the core, is still in a liquid and molten state.
Next, the core begins to cool and contract, but intermolecular bonds with the outer, already solid layer prevent it from compressing, as a result of which, after cooling, the core occupies a larger volume than if it were cooled in a free form.
Because of this, forces act in the opposite direction at the boundary of the outer layer and the core, which pull the outer layer inward and the core outward, creating, respectively, a compressive stress for the outer layer and a tensile stress for the inner core. As a result, we have a huge internal tension, which makes the drop very strong, but at the same time, any damage to the outer layer leads to a breakdown of the structure and a glass explosion, and since the thinnest place is the tail, it is through it that the outer layer can be destroyed in order to to get such a beautiful explosion as in the video above or in the photo below:
And this video is for those who find it easier to perceive video information than to read a lot of letters:
When and where were Prince Rupert's drops discovered?
Prince Rupert's drops were first discovered in Germany in 1625, however, as often happens, there was an opinion that they were discovered by the Dutch, or maybe it sounded more beautiful, because everything foreign arouses more curiosity, in this times do not change, hence the second name for these drops - Dutch tears.
What does Prince Rupert have to do with this, the reader may ask? The fact is that Prince Rupert, the British Duke, was the man who brought these drops to England and presented them to the English monarch Charles II. The king really liked the interesting glass drops and gave them to the British Royal Scientific Society for study. In honor of these events, the curious drops began to be called Prince Rupert's drops, and this name has been perfectly preserved to this day. Here he is a vivid example of how you can go down in history simply by giving an interesting thing to the right person.
Interestingly, the method of making Dutch tears was kept secret for a long time, while at the same time selling them as interesting toys at fairs and markets.
I read what they write about Prince Rupert. His biography is quite interesting, he was involved in a large number of historical events, but this is rather a topic for a separate post.
When I was finishing the post, I found an interesting and relevant video, in which the entire process is shown from beginning to end - from the creation of Prince Rupert’s drop to the glass explosion:
Now the topic of Prince Rupert’s drop is completely covered and you can calmly show off this knowledge in company or even make similar drops (just be careful). That's all for today, see you next time!
Prince Rupert's Drop is a glass artifact that has two opposing properties: it is extremely durable and extremely fragile at the same time.The blob looks like a tadpole with a bulbous head and a long, thin tail. The head is so strong that it can withstand a hammer blow, and bullets fired at point-blank range are destroyed upon impact - yes, it’s bullets, not glass. However, if you flick the tail of the drop with your finger, it will turn the entire drop, including the tough glass head, into powder.
Prince Rupert's Drops (also known as "Batavian Tears" and "Bolognese Flasks") are formed by dropping liquid glass into cold water, causing the outer surface of the drop to immediately solidify while the glass inside remains molten. The cooled outer layer tries to contract while the molten inner layer tries to expand. During the crystallization process, opposing forces acting on the droplet head make it unusually strong and fragile at the same time. It is like a stone arch - the structure is under extreme tension, which is precisely what prevents it from falling apart. But if you remove the cornerstone, the arch will collapse.
Prince Rupert's Drops were first discovered in Germany in the 1640s. They were originally created by glassmakers in Mecklenburg (Northern Germany) and were sold as toys and curiosities throughout Europe, where they were called variously, such as "Prussian tears" or "Dutch tears". Glassmakers carefully guarded their secret, leading to a number of theories as to how the drops were made.
An amateur scientist from England, Duchess Margaret Cavendish, after weeks of experimenting with dozens of samples in her laboratory, came to the conclusion that a small amount of a volatile material was introduced into the head of the drop, which reacted violently when exposed to air.
In 1660, Prince Rupert of the Palatinate, Duke of Cumberland and one of the founders of the Royal Society, brought with him several glass drops to demonstrate them to scientists and King Charles II. As you probably already guessed, they were named after him.
Robert Hooke, who was responsible for carrying out the experiments to members of the public, made an important breakthrough by suggesting that it was the cooling of glass after immersion in water that caused the strange properties of the drops, although a fuller understanding of the mechanics did not become available until three centuries later.
It wasn't until 1994 that scientists from Purdue University and the University of Cambridge, using high-speed imaging to observe droplet breakup, concluded that the surface of each droplet was under high compressive loads, while the interior was under the influence of high-tension forces - in a state of uneven balance, which can easily be disrupted by breaking the tail. Experiments show that the bulbous head can withstand compression forces of up to 7000 kilograms per square centimeter. It was also estimated that destructive cracks were spreading along the tail and head at an astonishing speed of 6,500 kilometers per hour.
Subsequently, working with the Tallinn University of Technology in Estonia, the researchers discovered that in order to break a droplet, it is necessary to create a crack that can penetrate its internal stress zone. The outer compression layer is very thin: it is only about 10 percent of the diameter of the droplet head, but it is incredibly strong. Since surface cracks typically grow parallel to the surface, they cannot enter the stress zone. But if the tail cracks, the cracks will enter the stress zone and release all the stored energy, causing the drop to collapse.
Tempered glass, which is typically used in cars and mobile phones, is made using the same principle. It is quickly cooled into its molten form by cold air, creating internal tension that allows the surface to remain compressed at all times. The compression prevents the cracks from growing, but when the glass finally breaks, it shatters into thousands of small pieces. This is why car windshields shatter into small pieces upon impact, but they are coated with a special layer of adhesive that prevents particles from entering the vehicle interior and causing injury to passengers.
“Tensile stress is what typically causes materials to fail in a manner similar to tearing a sheet of paper in half,” says Koushik Viswanathan of Purdue University. “But if you change tensile stress to compressive stress, then you make it harder for cracks to grow, and that’s exactly what’s happening at the head of the Prince Rupert Drop.”
Let me introduce you to one of the interesting properties of glass, which is commonly called Prince Rupert's drops (or tears). If you drop molten glass into cold water, it will harden in the shape of a drop with a long thin tail. Due to instant cooling, the drop acquires increased hardness, that is, it is not so easy to crush it. But if you break off the thin tail of such a glass drop, it will immediately explode, scattering the finest glass dust around itself.
Glass drops were invented in Germany in 1625. In the 17th century, there was an opinion that glass tears were actually invented in Holland, so they were incorrectly called “Dutch.” In Britain, glass tears became famous thanks to the British Duke Rupert of Palestine. He presented them to King Charles II, who, in turn, presented them to the Royal Scientific Society for study. In honor of the Duke, glass tears began to be called “Rupert's drops”. The method for making Duke Rupert's drops was kept secret for a long time. They were sold to everyone, like funny toys.
Today, the mechanism of “work” of Dutch tears has been thoroughly studied. If molten glass falls into cold water, it quickly solidifies, accumulating incredible mechanical stress. Let us conditionally distinguish the outer layer and the inner core in the drop. The droplet cools from the surface, and its outer layer contracts and decreases in volume while the core remains liquid and hot.
After the temperature inside the ball drops, the core will begin to shrink. However, the already hard outer layer will resist the process. With the help of intermolecular forces of attraction, it tenaciously holds the nucleus, which, when cooled, is forced to occupy a larger volume than if it cooled freely.
As a result, forces will arise at the boundary between the outer layer and the core, pulling the outer layer inward, creating compressive stresses in it, and the inner core outward, creating tensile stresses in it. These stresses when cooling too quickly are quite significant. So the inside of the ball can break away from the outside, and then a bubble forms in the droplet.
If the integrity of the surface layer of the tear is disrupted, the tension force is immediately released. The frozen glass drop itself is very strong. It can easily withstand a hammer blow. However, if you break its tail, it collapses so quickly that it is more like a glass explosion.
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Do you know? I'll be honest, I didn't know. But judging by the information on the Internet, this is an old and very popular topic! Think about it, what does that look like? Tell us later in the comments, and now we’ll look at this process in all its glory, and who knew - maybe they’ll find out the details!
This is one of the interesting properties of glass, which is popularly called “Prince Rupert's drops” (also known as Rupert's balls or Dutch tears)
Making a Prince Rupert drop is very simple. Simply take hot glass and drop it into a bucket of water. As the water quickly cools the outer surface of the glass, the temperature inside remains significantly high. When the glass finally cools, it shrinks within the shell of the now hard outer shell. Due to this compression, a very strong compressive stress is created on the outer part, while the inner part is in a state of tensile stress. As a result, we have something in the form of tempered glass, although not quite.
But what's so surprising about Prince Rupert's drop? Unlike ordinary glass, this drop cannot be broken even by hitting it very hard with a hammer - at least if you hit the main part of the “drop”. At the same time, if the “tail” of a tear is slightly damaged, it explodes like a grenade - but this can only be seen with a camera capable of filming at a speed of 100,000 frames per second. This is exactly what you can see in the video above.
The speed of the fault is approximately 4 thousand 200 km per hour.
What kind of prince is this? And we will find out now!
Prince Rupert, cousin of King Charles II, had about as many titles as he had natural talents: Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Bavaria, Earl of Holderness, Duke of Cumberland, part-time cavalryman, sailor, scientist, administrator and artist.
His father, Friedrich von Palatinate, was king of the Czech Republic for exactly one winter, and spent his entire subsequent life in Holland. Even as a child, Rupert mastered the main European languages, demonstrated good mathematical abilities and a talent for drawing. Rupert began his military career at the age of 14, accompanying the Prince of Orange at the siege of Rinberg. Two years later, during the invasion of Brabant, he entered the service of the prince's guard, and the next year, together with his older brother, visited English relatives, making an extremely favorable impression on Charles the First. From this trip he returned with an honorary Master of Arts degree, awarded to the distinguished guest at Oxford.
In 1637, Rupert took part in the siege of Breda, after which, together with his brother and a detachment of Scottish mercenaries, he went to fight in Westphalia, where in the fall of 1638 he was captured. He languished in prison until 1641, and at that time Lord Arundel, the English ambassador in Vienna, gave the prince a dog, which later gained great fame.
It was a white poodle, allegedly smuggled from Turkey, where the Sultan had prohibited foreigners from purchasing dogs of this breed. “It was extremely interesting to watch how this impudent and restless man amused himself by teaching a dog a discipline that he himself had never known.” The poodle, who received the simple nickname Boy, invariably accompanied Rupert until his death at the Battle of Marston Moor. The poodle was fondly remembered in the pamphlets of the "Roundheads", for example, in one engraving he is depicted growling at members of Parliament, dissolved by Cromwell. Boy enjoyed many privileges - he slept in his master's bed, used the services of more barbers than Rupert himself, and received the most tidbits from the hands of King Charles, who condescendingly allowed Boy to sit in his chair. According to rumors, the dog was very smart. So, at the word “Karl” he began to jump joyfully and loved to listen to the liturgy, turning his face towards the altar. This, obviously, gave rise to rumors that a spirit follows Rupert in the form of Boy, saying that the dog can become invisible and participates in necromancy sessions conducted by its owner. And the poor fellow was killed. The fight, as they say, was a silver bullet.
Let's return to the prince:) In addition to training Boy during the years of imprisonment, Rupert also held theological conversations with confessors, resisting attempts to convert him to Catholicism, improved his skills as an engraver, read books on the art of war and started an affair with the governor's daughter. Thanks to the efforts of Charles the First, Rupert received his freedom on the condition that he would never again turn arms against the emperor. In August 1642, the prince and his younger brother Moritz arrived in England at the head of a detachment of English and Scottish veterans of the continental wars to act on the side of the king in the civil war with Parliament. Awarded the Order of the Garter, Rupert stood at the head of the royal cavalry, but soon the joy of his arrival became far from universal. Although Rupert was an experienced soldier, he was characterized by youthful ardor, which, along with his foreign manners, repelled the king's respectable advisers. In particular, their understandable discontent was caused by the prince’s statement that he wanted to receive orders exclusively from his august uncle. Youth had served Rupert badly. At the Battle of Edgehill in October 1643, his cavalry completely destroyed the Parliamentary cavalry, but, carried away by the pursuit, Rupert abandoned the field, thus denying the Royalist force the chance to inflict a decisive defeat on the Roundheads.
The prince showed remarkable energy, combining administrative work with military operations throughout 1643-44: he took Bristol, ruled Wales, lifted the siege of York... After the defeat at Marston Moor, Rupert stood at the head of the royalist army, nominally led by the Prince of Wales. Internal disagreements and a number of objective reasons led to defeat at Naseby, after which Rupert doubted the successful outcome of the war for the king and advised Charles to reach an agreement with Parliament. This was regarded as a malicious intent, of which the king was finally convinced after the prince surrendered Bristol to parliamentary troops. The king dismissed Rupert, who came to Newark and demanded a trial, as a result of which his good name was returned, but not his command. In 1646, Princes Rupert and Moritz were expelled from England by order of Parliament.
On the continent, Rupert led detachments of English emigrants who entered French service and commanded them in military operations against Spain. After the outbreak of the second civil war in England, the prince tried himself as a sailor with varying degrees of success. In 1649, he and Moritz received command of 8 ships and went to Ireland under the command of the Marquis of Ormonde, where he continued the glorious English tradition - he robbed strangers and handed over the loot to his own. Parliamentary Admiral Blake was sent to put an end to these outrages, and Rupert sailed to Portugal, where he was promised shelter, but Blake caught up with him in the port of Lisbon. Exposed as a pirate, the prince sets off on a free voyage across the Mediterranean and Atlantic. In the spring of 1652, Rupert sailed to the shores of West Africa, where he was wounded in a battle with the aborigines. He sailed for the West Indies in the summer of 1652, only to find that the royalist enclave of Barbados, where he had hoped to find refuge, had capitulated to the Commonwealth. In the fall, on the way from the Virgin Islands, two of Rupert's four ships were lost in a storm, one of them was commanded by Moritz. Depressed by the death of his brother, the prince returned to Europe in 1653.
Rupert was warmly received at the court of the exiled King Charles II in Paris, but the pleasantries faded in proportion to how the exact amount of booty he brought from the West Indies became clear. The disillusioned prince spent the next six years in obscurity, having quarreled with his older brother over the inheritance.
After the restoration of Charles II in 1660, Rupert returned to England and was well received by the king, despite previous differences. He received an annuity and was appointed to the Privy Council in 1662, his special concern being the state of the navy. Rupert also took an interest in overseas commercial ventures, becoming the first governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1670. The territory granted to the Company was named "Prince Rupert's Land" in his honor. He was also an active shareholder of the African Company. Rupert's contribution to the development of trade was recognized by the foundation stone of the new Royal Exchange. The Prince, as an admiral, took an active part in the Second and Third Anglo-Dutch Wars, playing a significant role in the Battle of Lowestoft and in the victory of St. James's Day (25 July 1666). From 1673, Rupert devoted himself to administrative work at the Admiralty. He died aged 62 in 1682 and was buried with honors at Westminster.
Continuing his interest in scientific experimentation, Rupert became one of the founders of the Royal Society. In particular, he experimented with the production of gunpowder (the method he proposed made gunpowder 10 times more effective), tried to improve guns, invented an alloy known as the “prince’s metal,” and also developed a device for, so to speak, deep-sea diving:) The prince formulated a mathematical the problem of the "Rupert's Cube", achieved well-known success as a cipher reader, built a water mill on the Hackney Marshes, developed a naval weapon, which he called Rupertinoe, invented a mechanism that ensured the balance of the quadrant when taking measurements on board a ship, tried to improve surgical instruments and was the author of extraordinary engravings.
As for his personal life, Rupert never married, but left behind two illegitimate children: son Dudley (1666) from Frances Baird and daughter Rupert (1673) from actress Margaret Hughes (Hughes). The latter, precisely thanks to her connection with Rupert, became the first professional actress in the English theater; in 1669, Margaret, along with male actors, enjoyed the privilege of “royal servants” - she could not be arrested for debts. This was very useful, because she led a wasteful lifestyle. During their relationship, Rupert gave her jewelry worth 20 thousand pounds, including family jewelry from the Palatinate, and also bought a mansion for Margaret for another 25 thousand. Rupert liked family life - or the semblance of it - he noted with pleasure, watching his little daughter: “She already rules the whole house and sometimes even argues with her mother, which makes us all laugh.” It is believed that Margaret became Rupert's morganatic wife. He bequeathed his property equally to her and his daughter.
), or "Danish tear". The drop head is incredibly strong, it is very difficult to mechanically damage it by compression: even strong blows from a hammer or a hydraulic press do not cause any harm to it. But if you slightly break the fragile tail, the entire drop will scatter into small fragments in the blink of an eye.
This curious property of a glass drop was first discovered in the 17th century, either in Denmark, or in Holland (hence another name for them - Batavian tears), or in Germany (sources are contradictory), and the unusual thing quickly spread throughout Europe as an amusing toy . The drop received its name in honor of the commander-in-chief of the English royal cavalry, Rupert of the Palatinate, popularly known as Prince Rupert. In 1660, Rupert of the Palatinate returned to England after a long exile and brought with him unusual glass drops, which he presented to Charles II, who donated them to the Royal Society of London for research.
The technology for making the drop was kept secret for a long time, but in the end it turned out to be very simple: just drop molten glass into a bucket of cold water. In this simple technology lies the secret of the strength and weakness of the drop. The outer layer of glass quickly hardens, decreases in volume and begins to put pressure on the still liquid core.” When the inner part also cools, the core begins to shrink, but now this is counteracted by the already frozen outer layer. With the help of intermolecular forces of attraction, it holds the cooled core, which is now forced to occupy a larger volume than if it had cooled freely. As a result, opposing forces arise at the boundary between the outer and inner layers, which pull the outer layer inward, and a compressive stress is formed in it, and the inner core pulls outward, forming a tensile stress. In this case, the inner part may even break away from the outer one, and then a bubble forms in the drop. This opposition makes the drop stronger than steel. But if you nevertheless damage its surface, breaking the outer layer, the hidden force of tension will be released, and a rapid wave of destruction will roll from the place of damage along the entire drop. The speed of this wave is 1.5 km/s, which is five times faster than the speed of sound in the Earth's atmosphere.
The same principle underlies the production of tempered glass, which is used, for example, in vehicles. In addition to increased strength, such glass has a serious safety advantage: if damaged, it breaks into many small pieces with blunt edges. Ordinary “raw” glass shatters into large sharp fragments, which can seriously injure you. Tempered glass is used in the automotive industry for side and rear windows. Windshields for cars are made multi-layered (triplex): two or more layers are glued together with a polymer film, which, upon impact, holds the fragments and prevents them from flying apart.
Veronica Samotskaya
