Overbaked Gorilla Glass

Another glass product was also discovered by serendipity. In 1952, Donald Stookey, a chemist at the Corning Glass Works, placed a sample of photosensitive glass in a furnace at 600°C and left it to bake overnight. A fault with the temperature control caused the furnace’s temperature to rise to 900°C and Stookey must have expected his sample to have been damaged by the excess heat. Surprisingly, the new milky white material was stronger and harder than the original glass and it was lighter than aluminium. Even stranger, when Stookey tried to remove the material, his tongs slipped and, rather than shattering, the new substance bounced. It was named Pyroceram and soon found many applications, including in microwave ovens and the nose cones of missiles. Stookey’s innovation is the basis for Gorilla Glass, a brand of strengthened glass that is used in mobile phone screens.