A survey of the shock properties of the silicate glass, LACA has been carried out using manganin stress gauges. The principal Hugoniot has been measured and found to have significantly higher values than for other common silicate glasses. Gauges mounted on the rear of the target (supported with a block of polymethylmethacrylate) show reloading signals superimposed on the main compressive shock pulse. This has been interpreted as evidence of dynamic compressive failure (the failure wave or front). Manganin gauges mounted so as to be sensitive to the lateral component of stress support this hypothesis. Finally, failure front velocities, measured using known lateral gauge separations increase with increasing shock stress, tending towards the shear wave speed. (c) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.