Food - Drink
The Invention Of Pyrex Began With Thomas Edison's Lightbulb
By STEPHANIE FRIEDMAN
Food storage and preservation was a hassle for our ancestors, but today, we can simply refrigerate food in airtight containers like Pyrex. Pyrex dishes are well-loved because they're heat-resistant, low-expansion, and versatile, and it might surprise you that these modern lifesavers go all the way back to Thomas Edison's time.
After receiving a patent for his revolutionary incandescent lamp in 1880, Thomas Edison asked Corning, a glass-making company, to supply the glass he needed to make the lightbulbs. Corning, which still operates today, took Edison's famous invention even further in 1909, when it invented borosilicate glass for railroad lanterns.
Borosilicate glass can withstand extreme hot or cold, and Bessie Littleton, wife of Corning physicist Dr. Jesse Littleton, once experimented by baking a cake on a slab of this glass. The glass didn't bend or break in the oven, and in 1915, it was put to use to manufacture food storage containers that we now know as Pyrex.