I remember having sets of Corningware.  One for meat and one for dairy. But, at the time, I really didn’t think they would be among my last.  Even though I had a part in that revolutionary change.  Just because Corning was glassware- and Corningware was ubiquitous.

But, this is not about how Corning got changed from its lineage, or its move from Masachussetts to Brooklyn and then eventually to Corning, NY.  (Please, please check out Steuben glass, which is no longer part of the family, sold by professional managers [no longer the Houghton family] in 2008, but a highlight of the Corning Museum of Glass.   While Corning went public in 1945, it wasn’t until some 40 years later that the Houghton control was diluted and relinquished; Amory and his son Amo were the last two Houghtons in total control of the firm.)

No, this post is about a chemist who never gets enough credit.  Dr. S. Donald Stookey (MIT, Physical Chemistry, 1940) , who recently left this earth at an unbelievable age- 99!

Stookey was a critical component of the Corning genius and served as the Director of the Fundamental Research Department there.  Consider these innovations:

• The windows at the UN are comprised of a photosensitive glass, a Stookey development.
• Lenses that darken or lighten dependent upon ambient light, a Stookey development.
• Pyroceram, which can withstand 1300F, critical for guided missiles and our Race for Space, a Stookey development.

It’s that latter development that y’all know as Corningware.  And, like the discovery of the benzene structure by Kekule, this is yet another example of serendipity.  This was considered the most important technological improvement since borosilicate glass (you know- Pyrex, another Corning coup),  from which material Corning produced the glass telescope for Palomar Observatory.

[Maybe this is time for another sidebar… As a child, I knew that Pyrex test tubes and glassware didn’t break under heating.  (Didn’t everyone?)  So, when I mixed all the chemicals in my extraordinary lab (certainly for one at my tender age) and heated them up, it never occured to me (come on, I was a smidge over 6) that it could blow up.  And, you wonder why my parents had challenges with my educational needs?]

Back to Pyroceram.  Imagine being shown a material being heated by an acetylene torch and not breaking.  Then, losing your breath as it was plunged directly into an ice bath and retrieved whole and complete.  That was the dramatic introduction used.

But, how it came about was as dramatic.  Instead of placing his borosilicate glass experiment (ca. 1953) in a 600 C furnace for a bit, the 6 somehow got inverted- and the furnace hit 900 C.  Oops.  (He claims to have employed a ‘Roy Ackerman special vernacular’ when he recognized his error.)

Instead of having to clean up a mess of molten glass (OK, instead of tossing the clearly ruined lab furnace- and explaining to the Houghtons his mistake), he was blown away to see the glass was now an opaque, milky white slab.  Grabbing at it with tongs- which didn’t manage to hold the slab- letting it fall to the floor, it “twanged” like it was a piece of metal.  Oh, and it didn’t break either.  This overheated glass had crystallized and become far stronger than conventional glass.

This then became a quest to determine how he could fine-tune his experimental error and produce the materials that would eventually become missile structures-because of their heat resistance  and permeability to radar signals (oh, and let’s not forget they were the ceramic nuts and bolts holding the Shuttle together, too)- and the beloved cornflower tattooed casseroles that would be used to cook, store, and freeze home-based chef’s foods for decades to come.  And, let’s also not forget those radically smooth and shiny glass stovetops!  (Unless you have a daughter who tries to clean one with abrasive cleaners one day.)

Stookey retired from Corning in 1987, and Corning sold the division to World Kitchens in 1998.  But, Stookey was recognized by his peers- earning the National Medal of Technology (for creating $ 500 million in annual sales and 10,000 jobs) in 1986 and the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2010 (this ‘museum’ part of the US Patent and Trademark Office).

So, now, it’s not just the Corning folks who can thank Stookey for their jobs.  You can recall his life with a smile, too.