Taylor was born in San Francisco, California, on March 3, 1886, the son of William Taylor, Jr. , and Carrie Louise Chittenden. His father was one of the last clipper ship captains, and during his youth Taylor sailed eleven times "around the Horn" on voyages between California and the East Coast, in addition to making several trips around the world. Ultimately he rose from apprentice seaman to first mate.
Much of his early education was obtained from his mother while on shipboard, but he also attended the California School of Mechanic Arts and the Boston English High School. He entered the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1904, and graduated four years later with the B. S. degree, ranking first in his class.
Late in 1908, Taylor was appointed assistant chemist at the newly established research laboratory of the Corning Glass Works, Corning, N. Y.
He left in 1909 for a brief stint as a chemist with the U. S. Agricultural Experiment Station in Mayagüez, P. R. , but returned to the Corning Glass Works in 1910 and remained with that firm for the rest of his career. By 1923 he had risen to the rank of chief chemist, followed by promotions to director of glass technology (1939), and vicepresident and director of manufacturing and engineering (1947). Upon his retirement in 1954, he became honorary vice-president and general technical adviser.
Taylor's career spanned a period of revolutionary change in glassmaking. When it began, glass was still melted in small pots and blown by hand; by the time it ended, continuous melting of raw materials in massive furnaces, followed by rapid blowing, pressing, or drawing by machines, was characteristic.
Taylor achieved most recognition for his role, along with Eugene C. Sullivan, in the development of borosilicate glass, highly resistant to heat and corrosion. After numerous experiments in search of a chemically stable mixture of silica sand and boric oxide, success was achieved in 1912 with a material that was first used in lamp globes and battery jars. This was of special value for the safer operation of railroads because it dramatically reduced the shattering of signal lanterns when heated glass came in contact with cold rain or snow.
Another important application was soon suggested by a new member of the research team, Jesse T. Littleton, who urged that the material would make good baking vessels because it absorbed radiant heat, whereas most metal containers reflected it. This idea, tested successfully by Littleton's wife, resulted by 1915 in an improved type of ovenware marketed under the trade name of Pyrex.
During World War I Corning was quick to exploit the market for beakers, test tubes, and other glassware requiring high resistance to chemical attack, which American laboratories had previously obtained from Germany. Later the chemical and food-processing industries began to use large quantities of piping made of borosilicate glass, which also proved to be a superior material for insulators on telephone and electrical power lines. During the mid-1930's the same versatile material was used in making the 200-inch mirror for the Hale Telescope of the Mt. Palomar Observatory.
Taylor served for a time as an alderman of the city of Corning, and he played a leading role in the Sea Scout movement.
He died at Corning, N. Y. , just four days after he, Sullivan, and Littleton had received the plaudits of numerous scientists and engineers at a dinner marking the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Corning research laboratories.
Taylor contributed significantly to this transformation. During his career he obtained thirty-two patents; typical was one awarded to him in 1935 for stirring molten glass in continuous tank furnaces. He was prominent in developing improved bulbs for incandescent electric lighting and vacuum tubes for radios. He also played a major role in perfecting glass with chemical characteristics permitting the transmission or absorption of specific wavelengths in the visible, ultraviolet, and infrared spectra, thereby opening up many new scientific and technological applications. In 1928 Taylor, together with Sullivan, had won the Potts Medal of the Franklin Institute for the development of heat-resistant glass; in 1929 he received the Perkin Medal of the Society of Chemical Industry. In 1940 the National Association of Manufacturers presented him with its Pioneer of Industry Award.
Those who knew him well described him as "a man of gentle wit and humor. "
Taylor married Alice C. Pratt on December 29, 1909. They had two children.
