
How Corning Created the Ultrathin, Ultrastrong Material of the Future - lnguyen
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/09/ff-corning-gorilla-glass/
======
Flenser
Why couldn't the images in the article have shown these:

 _Corning’s headquarters in upstate New York looks like a Space Invaders
alien: Designed by architect Kevin Roche in the early ’90s, the structure fans
out in staggered blocks. From the ground, though, the tinted windows and
extended eaves make the building look more like a glossy, futuristic Japanese
palace._

[https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Corning+headquarters&t...](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Corning+headquarters&tbm=isch)

 _In some cases, a Prince Rupert’s drop can explode with such force that it
will actually emit a flash of light._

[https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Prince+Rupert’s+drop&t...](https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Prince+Rupert’s+drop&tbm=isch)

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Wingman4l7
I got peeved with Corning the other day when I found out they let another
company produce Pyrex-brand glass under license which is not borosilicate
glass. The whole _point_ of Pyrex was resistance to heat, which you don't get
with the cheaper soda-lime glass. At least I learned how to tell them apart
(soda-lime has a blueish color, and borosilicate is clear).

~~~
js2
Only in the US where Pyrex is made by World Kitchen. In Europe, Arc
Internationl still uses borosilicate for Pyrex-brand glass. Also, FWIW, a
popular US glass bakeware manufacturer claims tempered soda-lime glass is
stronger while still as heat resistant as borosilicate:

<http://www.anchorhocking.com/Bakeware_Facts.html#BORSILICATE>

~~~
ak217
That's really funny, because a glass baking form made by Anchor shattered in
my oven recently, spraying the whole oven with glass shards, ruining my food,
and making it a huge pain to clean up.

So... as heat resistant as pyrex? Not in my experience.

------
knite

      "The story of their collaboration—including Jobs’ attempt to lecture Weeks on the principles of glass and his insistence that such a feat could be accomplished—is well known."
    

It's not well known to everyone. This is the first I've heard of this, and a
quick search didn't turn up anything beyond the details in this article.

Excellent article otherwise!

~~~
defen
From the Isaacson biography:

Jobs described the type of glass Apple wanted for the iPhone, and Weeks told
him that Corning had developed a chemical exchange process in the 1960s that
led to what they dubbed “gorilla glass.” It was incredibly strong, but it had
never found a market, so Corning quit making it. Jobs said he doubted it was
good enough, and he started explaining to Weeks how glass was made. This
amused Weeks, who of course knew more than Jobs about that topic. “Can you
shut up,” Weeks interjected, “and let me teach you some science?” Jobs was
taken aback and fell silent. Weeks went to the whiteboard and gave a tutorial
on the chemistry, which involved an ion-exchange process that produced a
compression layer on the surface of the glass. This turned Jobs around, and he
said he wanted as much gorilla glass as Corning could make within six months.
“We don’t have the capacity,” Weeks replied. “None of our plants make the
glass now.”

“Don’t be afraid,” Jobs replied. This stunned Weeks, who was good-humored and
confident but not used to Jobs’s reality distortion field. He tried to explain
that a false sense of confidence would not overcome engineering challenges,
but that was a premise that Jobs had repeatedly shown he didn’t accept. He
stared at Weeks unblinking. “Yes, you can do it,” he said. “Get your mind
around it. You can do it.”

~~~
tomrod
Jobs. I sure respect the man. Uncompromising vision!

~~~
lucian1900
Really? Reading that I was thinking "what an asshole, no respect for the
scientist and engineer talking to him."

~~~
newhouseb
(Weeks is actually an accountant by education)

~~~
saraid216
Who was capable of explaining modern glassmaking. At some point, your degree
stops mattering when talking about labels like "scientist" and "engineer".

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tisme
Beautiful and what a fantastic attitude for a company that size. Reminds me of
the old HP.

Glass is amazing material, if you like this nad you haven't seen them yet
google for aerogel.

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pcl
"In some cases, a Prince Rupert’s drop can explode with such force that it
will actually emit a flash of light."

This got me wondering... and Google turned up a hit from an 1855 (!) edition
of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica [1], and a fascinating Wikipedia article about
triboluminescence [2].

What a cool world we live in!

[1]
[http://books.google.com/books?id=92xBAAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA564&...](http://books.google.com/books?id=92xBAAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA564&ots=cRE1I06mtw&dq=prince%20ruperts%20drop%20flash%20of%20light&pg=PA564#v=onepage&q=prince%20ruperts%20drop%20flash%20of%20light&f=false)

[2] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triboluminescence>

~~~
twoodfin
Ha, I had forgotten about the Wint-O-Green Lifesavers trick, and never had it
explained.

------
tomrod
Fantastic read! I like how old discoveries can become relevant again.
Applications of lateral thinking really make a good read.

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prostoalex
"Scientists were soon hurling fortified tumblers off their nine-story facility
and bombarding the glass, known internally as 0317, with frozen chickens."

What's the deal with frozen chicken tests? Don't some other objects, like
tennis balls, work just the same but are a smaller hassle logistically?

~~~
prototrout
Chickens are used to test airplane windshields for bird impact resistance[1];
perhaps that's why.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_gun>

~~~
bigiain
"Why do our windscreens keep breaking?"

"Thaw the chicken"

(Yeah I know: <http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/blthaw.htm>)

------
mercuryrising
For some reason, on Chrome, the linked article is teeny (text is completely
unreadable).

Anyway - it's funny how some of the best discoveries are accidental. I don't
know anything about Don Stookey, but I'm guessing this played a large part of
his induction into the inventor's hall of fame. But he didn't really do
anything, he didn't set out to make the next best glass, but he accidentally
did. Usually hall of fames are for decided effort to do something awesome
(like a baseball hall of fame, you need some luck, but its a lot of skill and
practice).

I've been wondering lately about the sheer number of cracked iPhone 4/4S/ will
be 5 screens. If this glass is so great, why does it break so frequently from
small heights? Does the metal casing around it transfer the blunt of the force
to the glass and make it crack? I haven't seen too many other phones with
cracked screens, would a plastic casing surrounding the glass absorb some of
the fall?

~~~
ghshephard
" he didn't really do anything"

I think what you are missing out, is that this invention came about from hard
work, lots of experiments, and recognizing what he had on his hands when he
saw it:

"Don Stookey knew he had botched the experiment. One day in 1952, the Corning
Glass Works chemist placed a sample of photosensitive glass inside a furnace
and set the temperature to 600 degrees Celsius. At some point during the run,
a faulty controller let the temperature climb to 900 degrees C. Expecting a
melted blob of glass and a ruined furnace, Stookey opened the door to discover
that, weirdly, his lithium silicate had transformed into a milky white plate.
When he tried to remove it, the sample slipped from the tongs and crashed to
the floor. Instead of shattering, it bounced."

See Also: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penicillin#Discovery>

"It was a fortuitous accident: in his laboratory in the basement of St. Mary's
Hospital in London (now part of Imperial College), Fleming noticed a Petri
dish containing Staphylococcus plate culture he mistakenly left open, was
contaminated by blue-green mould, which formed a visible growth. There was a
halo of inhibited bacterial growth around the mould. Fleming concluded the
mould released a substance that repressed the growth and lysing the bacteria.
He grew a pure culture and discovered it was a Penicillium mould, now known to
be Penicillium notatum."

~~~
jcampbell1
My favorite accidental discovery:

"It was initially studied for use in hypertension and angina pectoris. The
first clinical trials were conducted in Morriston Hospital in Swansea. Phase I
clinical trials under the direction of Ian Osterloh suggested that the drug
had little effect on angina, but that it could induce marked penile
erections."

Had someone not been paying close attention, Viagra would have died at phase
I.

~~~
DigitalJack
I think all of us with high blood pressure would have known something was up.
<cough>

------
Geee
Gorilla glass is far from perfect material for smartphone displays, because it
shatters so easily. There are pretty good plastic materials too, especially
those used in eyeglasses. Apparently, glass still offers the best scratch-
resistance, but I would rather have a non-shattering display.

~~~
dpark
Plastic isn't shatter-proof, either, especially not if it's sturdy enough and
thin enough to be considered a replacement for gorilla glass.

Even if plastic were shatter-proof, I'd much rather have a display that's
clear and breakable than one that's unbreakable but scratched all to hell.
I've never had a pair of glasses (high-end plastic lenses) that didn't get
noticeably scratched within a couple of years, and they get a lot less abuse
than my phone.

