Corning, Incorporated, with headquarters in Corning, NY has a long history of science-based innovations in glassware and ceramics. Although many collectors associate Corning Glass with consumer product brands, such as PYREX, Corningware and Corelle, the company’s core focus has always been on scientific and industrial applications.

Some of the notable innovations in science:
1880s: Production of the first light bulbs for Thomas Edison.
1900s: Creation of weather-proof glass railroad lanterns, which would soon become the basis for clear “Pyrex.”
1930s: Fabrication of telescope mirrors for California Institute of Technology.
1940s: Manufacture of durable  dinner-ware for the U.S. military, which would soon evolve into opal “Pyrex.”
1960s: Creation of safer automobile windshields which fracture into small granules if
broken.
1970s: Development of fiber optics used in networking and telecommunications.

In 1851, Amory Houghton, Sr. founded what would become Corning Glass in Cambridge, MA as Bay State Glass Company. By 1864, he had sold his interest in the company and purchased the idle Brooklyn Flint Glass Company in Brooklyn, NY. A few years later, in 1868, labor problems forced Houghton to relocate to Corning, NY where the company set up shop as Corning Flint Glass Company. By 1870, the company was renamed Corning Glass Works of Corning, NY. 

The Consumer Products Division of Corning Glass Works focused on glass and ceramic products for home use. The first consumer products were launched in 1915 with PYREX Ware – twelve clear glass products that could be used for baking as well as storing. Prior to this time, glass was too sensitive to sudden temperature changes, causing breakage. Corning based the kitchenware formula on its weather-resistant lanterns developed for the railroads a few years earlier.

Popular consumer products included: 
       
Clear PYREX Ware (1915-1998 by Corning Glass Works, 1998-Present by World Kitchen)

Flameware (1936-1979)

Opal PYREX (1945-1986)

Corningware (1958-1998 by Corning Glass Works, 2009 re-launched by World Kitchen) 

Corelle Livingware (1970-1998 by Corning Glass Works, 1998-Present by World Kitchen) 
 
The Consumer Products Division enjoyed great popularity and success throughout much of the 20th century. However, the 1990s brought about much change. The company was renamed Corning, Inc. in 1990 and revived its focus on research and technology. Based on declining sales and profits in consumer products, the division was sold to Borden Foods in 1998 and renamed World Kitchen, LLC in 2000. World Kitchen continues to manufacture many items, such as Corelle and clear PYREX. In 2009, World Kitchen also re-launched Corningware.

Believe it or not, March 14 is National Potato Chip Day! In honor of the holiday, here’s the history of how PYREX embraced North America’s favorite snack and what led to the creation of popular “Chip and Dip Sets” in the 1950s and 1960s. But first, a little chip and dip history.

According to many urban legends (some of which are hotly debated on the Internet), the potato chip was invented in 1853  by George Crum, a resort chef in Saratoga, NY. The son of an African-American father and a Native American mother, Crum invented the chip when a patron who ordered a plate of french-fried potatoes sent them back to Crum's kitchen because he felt they were too thick and soft. Crum decided to get back at the complainer by making really bad fries that were too thin and crisp to eat with a fork. But the plan backfired. The guest liked the brown, paper-thin potatoes and soon potato chips were a  specialty at the resort. Crum opened his own restaurant in 1860 with the profits he made selling his new chips. Every table had a complimentary basket of, you guessed it, potato chips. Potato chips remained a local Saratoga delicacy until the 1930s, when an enterprising salesman, Herman Lay, popularized the product throughout the United States.

By the late 1950s, potato chips had become North America’s #1 snack food. At the same time, entertaining had changed from a formal, sit-down affair to casual buffet dining or coffee-table service.

Chips were becoming more than picnic fare and were now served alongside cheeses and other “finger foods.” Embracing the casual dining trend, the Lipton Company began promoting new uses for its dried soup mix. The company experimentally launched a campaign that taught people to combine their undiluted dried soup mix with sour cream and “dip,” the perfect companion to salty chips, was born.

Not to be left behind, Corning Glass Works launched a wide variety of PYREX Chip and Dip Sets starting in the late 1950s. The two-bowl set was advertised as useful not only for chips and dip, but also for salads, floral centerpieces and seafood appetizers.

The first sets from Corning in the late 1950s included the Hot ‘N’ Cold Chip and Dip Set (known as Turquoise “Eyes”) which combined 401/403 mixing bowls, Balloons in 1958 and Golden Scroll in 1959, both of which combined 441/444 cinderella bowls and the Turquoise Chip ‘N’ Dip Hostess Set in 1959.

In the 1960s, PYREX sets included Golden Grapes in 1960, Early American and Town & Country in 1963, Ivy in 1964, Verdé in 1967 and Americana Fall Colors in 1968.

By the 1970s, fewer sets were available with only the Pineapple Party set released in 1972, which combined 401 and 404 mixing bowls.

The 1980s saw the release of the Speckled Lines Chip and Dip set which used a wooden disk rather than a metal bracket to hold the dip bowl. This set combined a 404 mixing bowl with a small 10 oz. "berry bowl" borrowed from the dinnerware product line.