Willow Glass

We don't know what we don't know but we do know that many products set on R&D shelves in various places around the world because a manufacturing process has not been created to produce for a world-wide market. This happened at Corning with the development of Willow Glass. That is, until one  member of the R&D team, Terry Ott, worked out a manufacturing process. Willow Glass could not practically be produced as sheet glass, it would be more useful to the market if produced on spools. Imagine, spools of glass! Well, you really don't have to imagine because here it is, thanks to the above mentioned Terry Ott.

And guess who challenged Corning's CEO Wendell Weeks to develop Willow Glass … Steve Jobs. 

"So what?" you say. 

Willow Glass may be be the next component for the next new thing. Wearable computers. 

As Shakespeare tells us, "What's past is prologue …"

Sources:

Bilton, Nick. "Where Apple and Dick Tracy May Converge." New York Times: February 11, 2013: B1. Print

Braga, Matthew. "What's So Special About iPhone 4's Aluminosilicate Glass." Jamie&Adam Tested, Tech, Smartphones, Featured. June 14, 2010 at 2:00 P.M. Web.

Fitzgerald, Michael. "Glass That Bends the Rules of Manufacturing." MIT Technology Review, Business Report, The Next Wave of Manufacturing. January 23, 2013. Web.

Gardner, Bryan. "Glass Works: How Corning Created the Ultrathin, Ultrastrong Material of the Future." Wired, Science. September 24, 2012. 6:30 A.M. Web.