Mirror silvering

[Kosh]

What types of mirrors are silvered? I was thinking of putting one in a drug store; is the processed reserved for the fancy shmancy stuff?

[Kentuk]

Do they still silver mirrors? I thought it was just the old kind.

[Ol' Fashioned Girl]

Silvering is still done, it's just done with different compounds than it used to be.

Here's a couple links I found:

http://www.science-education.org/classroom_activities/chlorine_compound/stannous.html

http://www.make-stuff.com/formulas/mirrors.html

http://www.alanmacfarlane.com/glass/birm6.html (this is a clip - very interesting!)

And here's some history of mirrors:

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Mirror.html

[arrowqueen]

And as a complete non sequitur:

Little Willie, from the mirror
Licked the mercury all off;
Thinking, in his childish error
It would cure the whooping cough.
At the funeral Willie's mother
Smartly said to Mrs. Brown,
"'Twas a chilly day for Willie
When the mercury went down."

[arrowqueen]

Well, not really. Just to show that mirrors were at one point 'silvered' with mercury.

[mooncars]

Now, this is an interesting thread! Thanks.

In a reflective mood,
Rick

[WildScribe]

And as a complete non sequitur:

Little Willie, from the mirror
Licked the mercury all off;
Thinking, in his childish error
It would cure the whooping cough.
At the funeral Willie's mother
Smartly said to Mrs. Brown,
"'Twas a chilly day for Willie
When the mercury went down."


Great poem... in a sad, spooky kind of way.

[pdr]

you can date a mirror from the way it reflects.
The antique mirrors apparently can't be recreated today and if you point your finger until it rests on the glass, an 18th C mirror will have the reflected finger appear to be 'touching' yours. With a modern mirror there's always a gap between the fingers.