Grain size‐microcracking trends are examined in the three pseudobrookite oxides MgTi2O5, Fe2TiO5, and Al2TiO5. These trends are toward smaller critical grain sizes, lower elastic moduli, and lower strengths with increased thermal expansion anisotropy. Extension of an energy criterion relates the micro‐cracking transition to the inverse square of the maximum difference in single‐crystal thermal expansion coefficients, Δαmax‐2.

The crystallographic features of several directionally solidified binary oxide eutectics were examined by the Buerger precession X-ray method and are discussed in terms of the lattice misfit and ionic charge compensation at the interface, particularly with regard to the oxygen sublattice. Fibrous and lamellar microstructures are classified and the resultant morphologies related to the phase volumes. The interphase spacing proportionality to the inverse square root of the solidification rate is examined.

The strengths of individual glass spheres of a commercial soda‐lime‐silica composition were measured in diametral compression for an extensive range of sizes. Standard plots for a two‐parameter Weibull distribution yielded m values of ∼5 over a 400‐fold range of volumes corresponding to a 50‐fold range of surface areas. Various techniques related to the Weibull formulation, including normalization to a single specimen size, were applied to demonstrate the existence of a single flaw population in all of the sphere sizes. Dependence of the strengths on volume flaws for the diametral compression mode of testing was also confirmed.