Oil and grit
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Lock parts arrive lightly oiled
Which is how they are kept from corroding, and it is the condition they are stored in.
And oil collects in the bottom of a container
Along with whatever grit and brass swarf came with the parts, which is the ordinary state of a working lock jar.
So the container accumulates
Which argues for a container that can be washed, and glass washes better than a hazed plastic jar.
Oil also defeats an adhesive label
The electrical property makes the same point: glass loses an adhesive label to oil, which is why a fired or etched mark is the permanent answer there.
And we supply no marking service
No printing, labelling, etching or coding on any shelf in this catalog, which three other properties in this library state in the same terms.
So an oily jar is a hard jar to label
Which for a sorted set of ten pin lengths is the whole problem, because the label is the only thing distinguishing them.
A lid-top label survives better than a side one
Because the oil runs down the inside and the hands go to the side. 210 of the 251 containers are jars, which have a flat lid to write on.
And a dome lid gives more room
22 of the 288 closures are dome lids, which add a raised top surface without adding capacity.
Grit is the other half
Brass swarf from a cut blank is abrasive, and it scores the inside of a plastic jar and the parts in it.
Which is the scratching problem again from a different direction
Not the parts scoring the jar but the debris scoring both.
Glass resists it and plastic does not
56 glass containers of 251, and the recommendation points the same way for a fourth reason.
Four reasons and one material
Static, scratching, washability and labelling. All four point at the 56.
Against one reason for the other 195
They do not break, which in a van is not a small thing.