THE STRESS-CRACKING OF BRASS

AbstractStress-cracking is a somewhat unfortunately chosen term that appears to emphasize the obvious. All cracking must be associated with stress but, like age-cracking, stress-cracking was sometimes used as an alternative to the more usual season-cracking to describe the spontaneous cracking in the atmosphere of brass parts that were in a state of internal stress. In connection with the latter term, it is difficult to judge whether the word “season” referred to the period of the year in which cracking was most prevalent, i.e. to the seasonal aspect, or to the resemblance of the cracks to those appearing in timber during seasoning.