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Alumni E. C. Sullivan and H. W. Hess invented Pyrex glass


Pyrex (trademarked as PYREX) is a brand which was introduced by Corning Incorporated in 1915 for a line of clear, low-thermal-expansion borosilicate glass used for laboratory glassware and kitchenware.


Corning no longer manufactures or markets Pyrex-branded borosilicate glass kitchenware and bakeware in the US, but Pyrex borosilicate products are still manufactured under license by various companies. World Kitchen, LLC, which was spun off from Corning in 1998, licensed the Pyrex brand for their own line of kitchenware products—differentiated by their use of clear tempered soda-lime glass instead of borosilicate.


In 1908, Eugene Sullivan, Director of Research at Corning Glass Works, developed Nonex, a borosilicate low-expansion glass, to reduce breakage in shock-resistant lantern globes and battery jars. Sullivan had learned about Schott's borosilicate glass as a doctoral student in Leipzig, Germany. Jesse Littleton of Corning discovered the cooking potential of borosilicate glass by giving his wife a casserole dish made from a cut-down Nonex battery jar. Corning removed the lead from Nonex, and developed it as a consumer product.[1] Pyrex made its public debut in 1915 during World War I, positioned as an American-produced alternative to Duran.


(Wikipedia: Pyrex)






E. C. Sullivan