Mark Twain said, “It is a little thing – glass is – until it is absent, then it becomes a big thing.” As I stood on the clear glass floor at the Corning Glass Museum, I read the quote and thought of all the times glass becomes a big thing. When a window breaks on a cold night, when you live/work in a space without natural light, when you stand on a glass floor.

Then I thought I was glad TBW didn’t wear a skirt today. We were touring the amazing Corning Glass Museum in Corning NY. If you have a chance to visit, I highly recommend it. They spent $65M on a cool industrial style building that teaches and delights.

For example, we all know that fiber optic cable carries more data (bandwidth) than copper wire. Do you have a sense how much more? The fiber optic cable is the size of light nylon fishing line. The photo below shows how much copper wire carries the same amount of data as a single fiber optic wire (about 8′ diameter).

Another thing I liked about the Glass Museum was how well they involved us in hand’s on projects. We watched several demonstrations of glass experts making some great artistic and functional pieces. They start working with this honey like substance and end with these beautiful creations. It’s one thing to watch others work the glass, it’s another experience entirely to make a piece yourself. We enjoyed getting to start with molten glass and end with some nice pieces.

Of course, We also loved seeing the museum glass pieces. What a delightful day, to wonder and wander, appreciating the creativity of others. If you don’t visit museums, you should consider it. See photo below for example motivation. And yes, I do realize my mind tends to be of the one track variety.