Object Details
- Description (Brief)
- This custom appartus is made from Pyrex glass.
- Pyrex has its origins in the early 1910s, when American glass company Corning Glass Works began looking for new products to feature its borosilicate glass, Nonex. At the suggestion of Bessie Littleton, a Corning scientist’s wife, the company began investigating Nonex for bakeware. After removing lead from Nonex to make the glass safe for cooking, they named the new formula “Pyrex”—“Py” for the pie plate, the first Pyrex product. In 1916 Pyrex found another market in the laboratory. It quickly became a favorite brand in the scientific community for its strength against chemicals, thermal shock, and mechanical stress.
- Sources:
- Dyer, Davis. The Generations of Corning: The Life and Times of a Global Corporation. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
- Jensen, William B. “The Origin of Pyrex.” Journal of Chemical Education 83, no. 5 (2006): 692. doi:10.1021/ed083p692.
- Kraissl, F. “A History of the Chemical Apparatus Industry.” Journal of Chemical Education 10, no. 9 (1933): 519. doi:10.1021/ed010p519.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
- maker
- Corning Incorporated
- date made
- 1931-1985
- Credit Line
- Gift of Barbara A. Keppel
- Physical Description
- pyrex (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 12 in x 3 3/8 in x 7 3/4 in; 30.48 cm x 8.5725 cm x 19.685 cm
- overall: 12 in x 3 1/8 in x 8 1/2 in; 30.48 cm x 7.9375 cm x 21.59 cm
- Object Name
- apparatus for special applications
