Up: Corning Pyrex
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CORNING GLASS WORKS |
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P Y R E X
POWER INSULATORS
THE INTRODUCTION OF PYREX insulators in 1923 marked the start
of a new era in power transmission. Here was pioneering. Here was
improved insulation due for the first time to a new material;
glass, to be sure, but so different from ordinary glass as to require
a new concept of this versatile material.
The problem of melting this new glass was
not unlike devising a container for a universal solvent. Its
resistance to heat is higher, its coefficient of expansion lower
than any other ceramic substance save fused quartz--and the heat
required to melt it quickly destroyed existing types of tanks in
which glass is melted.
The laboratories of Corning Glass Works,
leading technical glass manufacturer for sixty years, were assigned
this initial problem to solve. As a result a new type of tank was
developed which was able to withstand the new high temperatures
satisfactorily.
The moulding of these insulators also
presented difficult problems, for when the glass is melted it
must be poured into a mould and pressed quickly into its final
shape, before it cools and hardens. Step by step new or improved
processes were developed by Corning laboratories for manufacturing,
annealing, and testing PYREX insulators to provide more efficient
insulation than the industry has been able to obtain before.
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