Corning History of Innovation | Glass Discovery | Corning

发现一直是康宁事业中不可缺少的一部分。

Dating back to the start of the company in 1851, Corning’s founding family, the Houghtons, saw research and development as a way to stand out in a landscape thick with rival glass makers.

Corning, the Houghtons decided, would distinguish itself from the competition with a deep knowledge of the makeup, chemistry and physics of glass—a malleable, miraculous material that inventors, innovators, and a wide range of businesses have used to help transform our lives.

In 1879, a 32-year-old inventor named Thomas Edison approached Corning with his idea for the lightbulb. He needed just the right glass to encase the delicate filaments that comprised the lightbulb; glass that was stronger and more damage-resistant than glass typically used in windows and jars. By 1880, Edison had designated Corning as his sole supplier of the glass bulbs he needed to bring light to the wider world.

Corning also helped make early train travel safer after the railroad industry sought the company’s help in developing a more reliable signal glass. In the early 1900s, Corning scientists William Churchill and George Hollister developed Nonex (or CNX), short for Corning nonexpansion glass. The glass, able to withstand dramatic temperature changes, was used in railroad signal lanterns. Churchill would go on to work with the Railroad Signal Association (RSA) to develop a set of ideal colors that would later become the RSA national standard.

As the world evolved, so did Corning’s product line. Corning manufactured the glass tubes used in primitive versions of the radio and then applied the company’s understanding of material science and production efficiencies to mass produce cathode ray tubes (CRTs) in the early 1940s at the dawn of the television age. By the 1950s, Corning was the world’s top supplier of CRTs and by the 1960s, the company was producing 100 percent of the world’s TV glass, including all TV bulbs plus replacement bulbs.

在康宁实验室中发明的玻璃和其他材料已被用于太空旅行。康宁的产品在实验室研究中扮演的重要角色可以追溯到100年前。青霉素和脊髓灰质炎疫苗就是利用康宁Pyrex®培养器皿实现的医学突破。

康宁玻璃在数字革命中继续发挥着隐蔽而重要的作用。液晶显示器改变了我们交流和接收信息的方式,而康宁玻璃在大大小小的液晶显示器(LCD)屏幕上几乎无处不在。。康宁光学透镜被用于在硅片上蚀刻越来越小的电路,使智能手机轻巧便捷,却拥有比上一代能占满整个房间的超级计算机具有更强大的计算能力。

康宁最伟大的成就之一是在1970年发明低损耗光纤,这种光纤帮助人类进入了光通信时代。比人的头发还细的康宁玻璃丝通过光子(光脉冲,而不是电子) 每秒可传输数百万比特的信息,彻底改革了现今随时联线的互联网世界。今天,康宁仍然是全球光纤市场的领导者和运用最广泛的光纤品牌。

康宁最新的玻璃创新已成为我们这个 随时在线的网络世界的主要贡献者。耐损伤的康宁®大猩猩®玻璃被用作各种消费电子设备的保护玻璃,从而促成今天超薄、更薄、更具成本效益的显示器和手持设备。超薄、可弯曲的康宁®Willow®玻璃则剑指未来的智能表面。