The Historic Inspiration
Just about everyone knows the story of young inventor Thomas Edison and his famous incandescent lamps. But what they don't often know is the role a small glass company played in helping Edison share light with the world.
There are mixed historical accounts about when Corning Flint Glass started making the special glass bulbs for Edison's endeavor (some sources cite 1879, others 1880).
According to one account, Edison sent a representative to Corning in the search of a suitable glass bulb to hold the filament for his incandescent light. While in one of the Glass Works’ “most skillful shops,” the representative watched as gaffer, James Lear, and his crew (which included a servitor, a bit boy, and several shop boys), worked on creating a glass bulb.
It appears these efforts were not meeting the representative’s needs, when he happened to glance over and see “a shop boy” draw a gather of molten glass from the furnace. According to the story, the boy playfully swung the blowpipe back and forth, then blew a glass bubble which the representative identified to be what he needed.
"By 1880, Edison had designated Corning as his sole supplier of the glass bulbs he needed to bring light to the wider world” (from Corning Incorporated's "Our History of Innovation").
The Culture of Glass
While at the time, the moment probably seemed like just another day at the factory, it turned out to be rather significant for the glass company, as it was evidence that glass could be used for functional, everyday items and not merely for art. The applications for using glass as a material to make things seemed to shift to innumerable possibilities.
The event was also significant for the small town which had previously been known for lumber, tobacco, and agriculture. A town that has come to embrace the culture of glass for over 150 years.
While annual events like GlassFest have grown over the past decade, The Days of Incandescence is a relatively new celebration that goes beyond Corning’s wonderful history of glass. It’s also a celebration of light. And of the supernatural.
No, Corning’s history doesn’t consist of mad scientists or creatures from outer space (not that we're aware of anyway). But it does have an element of mystery . . . which makes the days leading up to Halloween the perfect time to celebrate!
A Touch Of The Supernatural
Did you know, that years after the shop boy blew that special glass bubble, three different men claimed to have been the boy? That’s right.
And the uncertainty of the mysterious boy's true identity is the spark behind the fictionalization of those historic events as presented in the supernatural tale The Legend of the Gathers: Protectors of the Light which has been made into a wonderful hand-stitched middle grade chapbook and a beautifully illustrated picture book.
It's from this legend that we first learn about "The Days of Incandescence" - that special time each October when phantom folk called The Gathers appear throughout Corning to help share the light.
Learn more about the real boy who inspired the legend here.
And learn about the middle grade chapbook and fully illustrated picture book versions of the story here.
