Gorilla Glass

Was this video made in 1987? It sure sounds and looks like it.

I would not be surprised. The product was developed in 1962.

It has properties that are not dissimilar to the original Pyrex, which is borosilicate glass (still available as cookware in Europe, but it's not the Pyrex sold for that purpose today in the US). "Gorilla glass" is aluminosilicate.

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Its an interesting product, but the corporate actions are even more interesting.

From the available media reports, Corning will make no attempt to [expand] manufacture of the product in the U.S. but is converting an existing plant in Japan, with the product in finished form, e.g. flat screen TVs, to be imported to the United States.

Thus not only are jobs exported, and the infrastructure/tax base expanded in other than U.S. tax jurisdictions, but the current account trade deficit increased at a time of serious U.S. unemployment and deficits.

I have already written my Senators and Representative about this [for what ever good that will do]. A copy of this email is attached below. Feel to use all, any part, or none of it, to write your own "Congress persons."

Almost all Senators and Representatives have a web site with a mail page. You can locate your Senators and their web mail addresses at

any your representative at You can send an email to the President at although there is a

1,500 character limit.

One hint -- after you identify your "Congress Persons" and locate their web mail pages, "bookmark" for easy future "nagging."

===== start of email ==== "GORILLA GLASS" AND THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER.

The media has had several news items about a new and rising demand for a 50-year old product, a very strong and scratch resistant glass by Corning.

For detailed information see:

The reason I am writing is that it appears the patent owner, Corning, appears determined to export the jobs created by the demand for this new old product, and the factory investment needed to produce it. To be sure, as the owner of the patent [now apparently expired] and possibly "trade secrets," they currently have the right to produce the material wherever they wish and import it for the U.S. market, however it is totally unconscionable for them to receive U.S. tax credits for so doing, either as special "investment tax credits," some sort of "export tax credits for intellectual property," or through deductibility of overseas investments and interest as a business expense on their U.S. taxes.

The rationale for tax deductibility for "investments," interest, and capitalization/depreciation of R&D has been that such tax preferences eventually generate enough U.S. jobs, increase the U.S. tax base, develop the U.S. manufacturing capacity and increase domestic "intellectual property" enough to at least offset the taxes initially lost. This is self-evidently no longer the case with the proliferation of U.S. domiciled transnational corporations and their increasing abuse of these provisions of the tax code.

I am therefore suggesting:

(1) Revision of the IRS code to prohibit the tax deductibility of investments and interest or other payments for these investments, ON U.S. TAXES, for any facilities constructed, operated or purchased outside U.S. tax jurisdiction.

(2) Revision of the IRS code for the mandatory pro rata reduction of tax deductabilities, tax exemptions, tax credits, subsidies, etc. after the application of (1) above, by the percent of non-U.S. citizens employed at these facilities, illegal or legal, i.e. H1b. Most of the required data is already available through the IRS W2 wage reporting system, backed by ICE.

(3) Revision of the IRS code to provide for the recapture of tax credits and deductions, with interest and penalties, for "R&D," when the products or processes developed are "exported" through sale or license for production overseas, which are then imported into the U.S., unless it can be shown that sufficient U.S. taxes have been generated by the domestic application of the "R&D" through increased jobs, increased tax base, etc. using accepted economic methodology, to offset the tax reductions/exemptions. In the case of "sleeper products" such as "Gorilla Glass," that have remained dormant for many years, NPV/DCF adjustment with a reasonable internal rate of return and inflation adjustment should be applied to the original R&D "investment" costs to prevent "shelving."

=== end of email ====

-- Unka George (George McDuffee) .............................. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. L. P. Hartley (1895-1972), British author. The Go-Between, Prologue (1953).

Anchor Hocking still makes & sells borosilicate glass products in the US. A search on their site gives 442 hits so you're wrong, yet again.

Not since 1998, Michael. Read what I said above. Pyrex cookware sold in the US today is tempered soda lime glass, and has been for over a decade. That's why Anchor Hocking doesn't call their glass products "Pyrex."

Once again, in your desperate quest to prove your superiority, you've stuck your foot in your mouth.

Check your facts, Michael. You should know better by now.

Unless something changed recently, Ed is absolutely correct. I looked into this a while back.

Wes

Our of curiosity, why isn't US Pyrex and similar borosilicate glass anymore? I can even buy the stuff in sheet from the glassworks half a mile from home (useful when you break the oven door and want to replace it with something decent..).

On the original topic, I'm less than impressed that the videos all seem to show them comparing the new glass with ordinary soda-lime glass. That's a bit like comparing a Nimonic alloy with wood :-|

Mark Rand RTFM

Here is one take on it.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

It's only the cookware. You can still get lab glassware labelled Pyrex that's borosilicate.

I dunno why. Soda-lime glass probably is cheaper. Dow-Corning sold the cookware business in the US to some other company in 1998.

I think it was Iggy that had a Pyrex baking dish explode. There are lots of complaints about the new stuff.

They make the real stuff in France. I considered importing it, but the licensing and trademark thing is sewed up tight.

Yeah. I never heard of aluminosilicate glass before, but apparently it's been around since the '60s.

Here is World Kitchens, LLC answer to another article. What is interesting is the statement that soda-lime glass is superior in the application. The product sold outside the US, however, is borosilicate. This begs the question: Why are they selling inferior glassware in Europe?

Kevin Gallimore

into this a while

Both Michael and Ed are correct. Or very close to correct. I think it was Corning Glass not Dow Corning that owned the tradename " Pyrex ". When Corning Glass was selling bakeware , Pyrex was borosilicate glass. And Anchor Hocking was also selling borosilicate glass bakeware. But Corning Glass sold the tradename to World Kitchens. And World Kitchens now uses the tradename " Pyrex " to denote soda- lime glass that has been tempered. Anchor Hocking is still selling borosilicate glass bakeware. Naturally they do not call their bakeware by another companies tradename, but you can buy bakeware that is the same as the original Pyrex in the U.S. But you can't buy it with the trade name Pyrex.

The borosilicate bakeware is better at not shattering because of uneven heating or cooling. The tempered soda-lime glass may or may not be better at not breaking when dropped.

Dan

Makes perfect sense to me. Why would you make the glass for flat screen TV's in the U.S. when the flat screen tv's are made in Asia.

Dan

Anchor Hocking can't use the name Pyrex, but they sell borosilicate glassware. I bought some a month ago, and their website had 442 hits for "borosilicate glass".

this a while

You might want to look more closely at those 442 hits. Searching on borosilicate alone yields 9 hits, searching on borosilicate glass yields

443, however examining them it appears that 434 of them do not contain the world "borosilicate"--apparently the search is on "borosilicate OR glass" rather than "borosilicate AND glass" or the phrase "borosilicate glass".

I sure don't plan to buy some of both and do my own testing. I seem to remember mom having a baking dish fail when I was a kid. That would have had to be borosilicate due to the time frame. One isolated case means squat.

#later in day, I knew I was going over so I stopped typing# Checking with mom at dinner today had her coming up blank so it might have been grandma (departed) or a memory from somewhere else. Mom doesn't ever remember an issue with glass bakeware.

If there was a problem with either one, I'm sure the tort lawyers would be all over it so I'm going to stick with the opinion that it is a non-issue at this point in time.

FWIW, I installed a couple Waldmann light fixtures in a couple od/id grinders after getting tired of replacing the plastic lense covers on the oem lighting that would get destroyed by a blown wheel.

With borosilicate glass, haven't had one crack yet and it has been at least 5 years. I didn't think acrylic would fare so good with CBN wheels. (scratching)

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

this a while

The Anchor Hocking items I purchased state that they are made of borosilicate glass. Are you going to claim that they weren't?

this a while

I'm not "claiming" anything except that there are only nine items on the Anchor Hocking web site that are specifically described on that site as being made from borosilicate glass, and there appears to be no general statement on that site that Anchor Hocking products are made from borosilicate. If you can show that others currently for sale are also made from it, please provide a list of products and SKU numbers (and, ideally, links to photos of the labels showing the SKU number and the "borosilicate glass" statement) so that others wanting borosilicate glass can benefit from your experience.

Just to set the record straight, there are no Anchor Hocking cookware items made of borosilicate glass. There are a few pieces of their stemware that are, and some decorative canisters. But no cookware. All of their cookware is made of tempered soda-lime glass, just like US-sold Pyrex.

As far as they know, there is no borosilicate glass cookware sold on the US market. I have no way of checking that for accuracy.