Donald Stookey invented glass ceramics, materials that embodied
important advances in glass technology and led to the popular
CorningWare line of consumer dishes. Among Stookey’s
contributions at Corning Glass Works was Fotoform glass, which
could be photochemically etched into precise and detailed
structures. In 1953, Stookey discovered that when he overheated
the glass it became harder, stronger, and higher in electrical
resistivity. This new crystalline material, called glass
ceramic, opened a new field of high temperature chemistry in
glass. CorningWare, the revolutionary cookware and dishware, was
first marketed in 1958. In addition to consumer products, glass
ceramics have been used to make products such as nose cones for
guided missiles and smooth-top cooking surfaces for stoves. They
are suited to this wide range of applications because of extreme
hardness, super strength, resistance to high heat, and
transparency to radar. Stookey also pioneered photochromic
glass, used to make optical lenses that da