This engrossing history of an extraordinary company, Corning Incorporated, chronicles how one of the oldest business enterprises in the world maintained its place as a global leader in technology for over 150 years. In the nineteenth century, Corning developed colored signal lights for railroads. In the twentieth century, it created Pyrex and color television tubes; today, it is a Fortune 500 company leading the international marketplace in areas such as fiber optics and photonics. If you use the Internet, drive a car, or simply turn on a light, then Corning is a part of your life. The Generations of Corning tells the fascinating stories of its founding family--the Houghtons, the inventors, and the adventures, behind Corning's remarkable achievements--from unexpected discoveries, like the laboratory mishap that led to Corning Ware, to the years of painstaking, often frustrating, research that led to its breakthrough in fiber optics. From 1851 to 1996, five generations of Houghtons made Corning a company that combined a culture of continuous innovation with a sense of loyalty to its employees and their community. Davis Dyer and Daniel Gross show how the critical changes in organization and leadership that accompanied each new generation helped Corning not just survive, but to prosper, and push itself to the cutting edge of materials technology in decade after decade. The Generations of Corning is a classic success story and a triumph of the inventive spirit.

Lenses for railroad lanterns, cut glass for the White House table, Thomas Edison's first light bulb-the glass for all of these was made in Corning, the glass capital of America, the Crystal City. From 1880 to World War I, newfound wealth sparked a spending and building boom that shaped the city. Corning recaptures the city's gilded age, the boom days when tax-free fortunes could be made-and lost-overnight. Vintage photographs show elephants and buffalo parading down Market Street, the Drake family giving recitals on its home pipe organ, churches and public buildings rising, carriages giving way to motorcars, and huge summer homes springing up on the Finger Lakes.

The Cowleys of Corning is the history of the clan from County Meath, Ireland that settled in the greater Corning, NY area by 1850, and earlier. Backed up by vigorous genealogical research, the Cowleys of Corning brings to life the stalwart souls who started it all over 170 years ago. Dick Cowley takes us back to life as he knew it. Research into the distant past to brings Dick's antecedents and their families to life. Meet Barney and Julia Cowley. Meet Bernard E. "the Old Gent" and Elizabeth Cowley, and their family. Meet John Cowley and his family. Meet Bryan Cowley and his family. Meet the Other Cowleys. Our account closes with insight into the historical forces at work that tore the Old Gent's family asunder while, against long odds, the children moved on in their lives. Meet and greet the men and women, a part of whose DNA is with us today.