The Progress Report
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175 years of continuous innovation

 

Explore Corning breakthroughs, then and now

Corning’s story is one of constant reinvention.

Since 1851, the company has used its expertise in glass, ceramics, and optical physics to meet the defining needs of each era. From TV to medicine, car glass to space, Corning scientists have gone back to the drawing board countless times to keep reiterating past breakthroughs. It’s this curiosity and tenacity that has made Corning relevant for decades.

Looking at Corning’s historic breakthroughs alongside its current technologies shows a clear pattern: the materials may evolve, but the mission stays the same – solve hard problems and make the world a better place.

 

Television

From the cathode ray tube to massive displays
 
THEN – 1940s

Before flat screens, cathode ray tubes brought major cultural moments into living rooms everywhere. In the 1940s, Corning pioneered their mass production using specialized glass for, delivering CRTs with clarity and consistency. By the 1950s and well into the 1960s, Corning was producing all the world’s TV glass.

NOW – 2020s

Today, Corning supports modern LCD, OLED, and specialty displays with glass that is thinner, larger, and dimensionally stable. Technologies like Corning® EAGLE XG® Glass helped drive that shift, enabling brighter images, sharper resolution, and the materials behind each new generation of screens.

 
 

Medicine

From polio to cancer research
 
THEN – 1950s

During the fight against polio in the 1950s, Corning supplied PYREX® petri dishes and laboratory products that supported vaccine research and production. Its glassware provided the sterility, durability, and consistency scientists needed, showing how everyday lab materials can help enable major medical breakthroughs.

NOW - 2026

Today, Corning’s  advanced life sciences products support more realistic research models, consistency, and the reproducibility needed for many lab applications, including cancer research. Beyond basic labware, Corning now enables complex drug discovery and cell therapy research and production, helping move promising science toward real-world impact.

 
 

Communications

From the telecom revolution to the AI revolution
 
THEN - 1970

When Corning invented the first low-loss optical fiber in 1970, it changed the future of communication. By making it possible to send light signals over long distances with far less loss, Corning helped open the door to fiber-optic networks, high-speed telecommunications, and eventually the internet as we know it. That breakthrough helped connect businesses, cities, and countries in entirely new ways.

NOW - 2026

Fiber is once again enabling transformation. AI depends on moving massive amounts of data quickly between systems inside enormous data centers, requiring advanced optical connectivity. Just as fiber helped make the internet possible, Corning now helps build the infrastructure making the AI revolution possible.

 
 

Space

From Hale Telescope to the James Webb Telescope
 
THEN - 1934

Corning took a huge step toward its astronomical future by casting what was, at the time, the world’s largest primary telescope mirror. The primary mirror for the 200-inch Hale Telescope in California was cast out of PYREX® borosilicate glass and delivered to Caltech in the spring of 1936. Since manufacturing the Hale Telescope primary mirror blank, Corning has supplied many mirror blanks for astronomy tools worldwide.

NOW - 2022

To help NASA see deeper into space, Corning produced telescope assemblies supporting the Fine Guidance Sensor and Tracker on the James Webb Space Telescope. Now more than a million miles from Earth, Webb is revealing never-before-seen views of the universe.

 
 

PYREX

From PYREX in the kitchen to PYREX in the lab
 
THEN - 1915

Introduced in 1915, PYREX® brought heat-resistant glass into kitchens and labs, becoming both a household staple and scientific tool. Its durable, temperature-resistant design changed everyday cooking and supported major research advances, including the development of penicillin.

NOW - 2026

Today, PYREX lives on most clearly in the lab, where thermal resistance, chemical durability, and reliability remain essential. Corning’s laboratory glassware continues that legacy, serving researchers under demanding conditions and reflecting the company’s long history of making glass that performs when it matters most.

 
 

Emissions control

From the Clean Air Act to carbon capture
 
THEN – 1970s

In response to the U.S. Clean Air Act, Corning developed ceramic honeycomb substrates for catalytic converters, which went on to help reduce harmful vehicle emissions worldwide. Since 1975, emissions from internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and trucks have dropped 99%. Emission control technologies have prevented billions of tons of pollutants and helped save 230,000 lives in the United States alone, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

NOW - 2026

Today, that same honeycomb expertise is being applied to Direct Air Capture, where structured ceramic materials help remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. While Corning’s products continue to clean tailpipe emissions, this proven platform may now have what it takes to support cleaner air on a broader, planetary scale.

 
 

Automotive

From Conaphore® headlights to sleek automotive glass
 
THEN - 1916

Corning’s earliest automotive innovation was Conaphore® headlight glass, which helped improve vehicle lighting through strong optical performance and durability. In that emerging era of electric headlights, Conaphore glass not only protected the lighting element, but also directed light into a focused beam with a long range, reduced glare, and increased visibility through snow and fog. Corning’s materials expertise helped shape how headlights performed on the road, showing that even a familiar part of the car could benefit from careful engineering and better materials.

NOW - 2026

Today, Corning’s automotive work extends far beyond lighting. Modern vehicles use glass in more ways than ever, from windshields and windows to sleek interior displays and decor elements. Corning Automotive Glass Solutions supports that shift with materials designed for strength, clarity, shape, and compatibility with advanced display technologies. Cars are becoming more connected, more digital, and more experience-driven, and Corning’s role i growing with them. What started with helping drivers see the road now includes helping define the cabin around them.

 
 

Semiconductors

From early supercomputers to advanced microchips
 
Photo: NASA
THEN - 1969

In early electronics and chipmaking eras, Corning manufactured specialty materials that made early computing possible, playing a role in the creation of supercomputers. In 1969, Corning began supplying IBM with fused silica discs to be used in insulators for computer chips used in mainframe computers. These IBM discs were in production until 1992.

NOW - 2026

That behind-the-scenes role matters exponentially today, as we demand more from our computing. Modern semiconductors are at the heart of AI, cloud computing, smartphones, vehicles, and countless everyday technologies, and making them requires extremely precise materials. Corning supplies materials and components in the production systems that are central to nearly every step of the semiconductor chip manufacturing process. It’s a good reminder that the biggest breakthroughs in computing don’t happen through chip design alone. They also depend on the materials and manufacturing systems that make those chips possible in the first place.