WITH YOUR SECOND CUP OF COFFEE...
S. Donald Stookey may not be a household name, but his creation – a synthetic ceramic glass able to withstand heat up to 1,300 degrees otherwise known as “CorningWare” – certainly is. The chemist, whose discovery revolutionized Americans cooking and eating habits, passed away at age 99 in upstate New York this week. WaPo: “Dr. Stookey was director of fundamental chemical research at Corning when, in 1957, he drew national attention for developing Pyroceram, a product that could endure the intense heat generated by air resistance and encountered by missiles in flight. After the product’s military uses had been explored – it was used on nose cones of guided missiles – Corning announced its workaday relevance for home cooks. Suddenly, instead of dirtying sinkloads of pans and serving dishes, they could bring casseroles and lasagnas from freezer to stove to dinner table in one attractive, shatter-proof dish…. [Stookey] said his creation was serendipitous. He had left a plate of photosensitive glass in a furnace heated to 900 degrees Celsius (1,652 degrees Fahrenheit) – 300 degrees higher than he intended….But the plate – astonishingly – had not melted. Instead, it had turned opaque, with a milky-white appearance. Impatiently, he reached in with tongs to remove the glass. When the tongs slipped from his grip, the plate bounced on the floor, clanging like steel.”
