"William Woods designed the original ribbon machine for Corning Glass Works in 1926 to automate the production of glass light bulbs, and to produce them faster and more efficiently. There were other machines producing bulbs at the time, but peak production averaged, at best, approximately 48 bulbs per hour. Corning Glass Works installed the first ribbon machine at their plant in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania. A new machine, built in 1998, could produce anywhere from 300 to 2,000 pieces per minute, depending on the product; it ran 24 hours per day." - excerpt from Running the ribbon machine: Stories from the team
Read posts from the Behind the Glass blog about the ribbon machine and the products created using this technology: