In the late 1940s, teenager Mike Smith went to work at Corning and watched the high-speed E-machines spit out bulbs at unprecedented rates. “I was fascinated watching the E-machines on 3A tank ...

Corning knew it had a tiger by the tail. In 1914, its bulb sales totaled $949,554. That was 54 percent of its total revenue of $1.745 million.