Custom apparatus
date: label: date made
content: 1931-1985
name: label: maker
content: Corning Incorporated
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This custom appartus is made from Pyrex glass.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Pyrex has its origins in the early 1910s, when American glass company Corning Glass Works began looking for new products to feature its borosilicate glass, Nonex. At the suggestion of Bessie Littleton, a Corning scientist’s wife, the company began investigating Nonex for bakeware. After removing lead from Nonex to make the glass safe for cooking, they named the new formula “Pyrex”—“Py” for the pie plate, the first Pyrex product. In 1916 Pyrex found another market in the laboratory. It quickly became a favorite brand in the scientific community for its strength against chemicals, thermal shock, and mechanical stress.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Sources:
label: Description (Brief)
content: Dyer, Davis. The Generations of Corning: The Life and Times of a Global Corporation. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Jensen, William B. “The Origin of Pyrex.” Journal of Chemical Education 83, no. 5 (2006): 692. doi:10.1021/ed083p692.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Kraissl, F. “A History of the Chemical Apparatus Industry.” Journal of Chemical Education 10, no. 9 (1933): 519. doi:10.1021/ed010p519.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Science & Scientific Instruments
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Chemistry
label: See more items in
content: Science Under Glass
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Barbara A. Keppel
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1985.0311.306
label: catalog number
content: 1985.0311.306
label: accession number
content: 1985.0311
objectType: label: Object Name
content: apparatus for special applications
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: pyrex (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 3 3/8 in x 7 3/4 in; 30.48 cm x 8.5725 cm x 19.685 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 12 in x 3 1/8 in x 8 1/2 in; 30.48 cm x 7.9375 cm x 21.59 cm