Gorilla glass, used in most modern smartphones, was invented in 1952!

In 1952, the Corning Glass Works chemist Don Stookey placed a sample of photosensitive glass inside a furnace and set the temperature to 600 degrees Celsius.

However, at some point, a faulty controller allowed to temperature to rise to 900 degrees C. Stookey quickly opened the door and instead of the melted glass and broken furnace that he expected, he found a milky white plate.

When he tried to remove it, the sample slipped from the tongs and instead of shattering, it bounced.

The company decided to take advantage of this accident and launched “Project Muscle,” a massive R&D effort to explore other ways of strengthening glass.

There was plenty of initial interest, but then people realized that good ol’ breakable glass might be the way to go. Some companies did place small orders for products like safety glasses but these were recalled for fear of the potentially explosive way the glass could break.

Additionally, when it was tested as a windshield, the glass didn’t break but it did show that it had the potential to break a human skull. Project muscle was shut down the glass was shelved in 1971.

In 2005, due to the rise of cell-phones, the demand for a strong, durable glass reappeared. Chemor thought that they would cash in on an old idea. Thus, “Project Gorilla Glass” was born.