Shattered

My blip today is of the new Pyrex casserole dish to replace the one that fell off the counter last night and shattered all over the place.

Did you know that because of its low expansion characteristics, Pyrex borosilicate glass is often the material of choice for reflective optics in astronomy applications.

In 1932, George Ellery Hale approached Corning with the challenge of fabricating the 200-inch (5.1 m) telescope mirror for the California Institute of Technology's Palomar Observatory project. A previous effort to fabricate the optic from fused quartz had failed, with the cast blank having voids. The mirror was cast by Corning during 1934–1936 out of borosilicate glass. After a year of cooling, during which it was almost lost to a flood, the blank was completed in 1935. The first blank now resides in the Corning Museum of Glass.

It’s also nice to see something made in France as opposed to China.

I hope you have had a good start to the week.