In the centre of bluegrass and bourbon country in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, is Corning’s oldest glass factory. It was built in the 1950s to create lenses for drinking-glasses, then transitioned into making LCD glass panels in the 1980s.
About six months before the first iPhone was unchained in 2007, Steve Jobs made a call to the CEO of Corning and asked the company to create glass that could confront scratches and breakage for a new Apple product. Before that, phones were typically covered in plastic. Corning shortly developed Gorilla Glass and the factory went through a complete transformation.
The same company that developed the glassware for the Edison bulb in 1879 is now making the glass that covers 6 billion smartphones, tablets, screens and wearables worldwide for Apple, Samsung, LG, Sony, Huawei and a classification of other manufacturers.
Here’s a rare look inside the factory where Gorilla Glass is made.