It has spent 48 years collecting dust on a shelf of a glass company called Corning Inc.  According to the Associated Press “ Corning set out in the late 1950s to find a glass as strong as steel.” By 1960 Corning Inc. launches ‘Project Muscle’ in which experiments lead to the discovery of ‘Chemcor’ in 1961, “the effort combined heating and layering experiments and produced a robust yet bendable material.”   

In 1964, Corning Inc. used a method called “fusion draw” this produced a “super-thin, unvaryingly flat glass. It pumped hot glass into a suspended trough and allowed it to overflow and run down either side. The glass flows then meet under the trough and fuse seamlessly into a smooth, hanging sheet of glass.”

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This new wonder product that is starting to be used in cell phones, computer screens, and could be used by aero-space technology, bullet proof glass, underwater, and much, much more.  Between 2005 and 2007 the company dusted of the product and wanted to further develop this product to be used in the mobile device arena and within 2 years had Gorilla Glass ready to go. This old technology is being used in new ways, and  I am amazed at how that this thing is 48 years old.  What other inventions have been kept from the public in the past that could have benefited society.