Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1899-08-11
A MIRROR AGE.
One Sees Them at Every Turn and
Everywhere.
A Dealer Tells Something Of Their Manuiac.
ture and Evolution.

years ago there are 200 today" saws n
| local dealer in furniture. .Rut tbis
vast increase in the use of reaec,ino
surfaces has been gained somawh., !.
the expense OF accuracy. brilliancy and
permanence. In the old DAYS when q
housewife bought a bit of looking
glass it was esteemed precious treas
ure. to be cherished like her rosewood
cabinet and her best china teanot ana
the glass on its part gave a faitbfn,
image OF all mat passed before il and
lost nothing of its clear mstre as ,ime
passed A pier mirrow was an index
or luxury. 1t came from France with
costly furniture and feminine finery.
But it went out of fashion when the
| cheaper article made its wav every
where
THE old mirrors We're coated with
mercury, and that is why. unless they
We're broken. they retained their nris
tine excellence year in and wear out.
Now there is only one manufacturer in
New York who uses mercury and h.
does not do an extensive business. 1t
doesn't pay any longer to make them
in that way. Silver has grown 50
cheap and is applied 50 easily that il
mas replaced mercury. The New York
assay office sells large quantities Of sill
yer in the form OF bricks to chemists
VINO convert Il into nitrate Of silver
and sell It to the manufacturers OF mir
rors
They combine with the nitrate GER
tain chemicals. these varying with the
different manufacturers. the compost
ton used by each constituting his trade
secret. But in all cases nitrate of sill
yer is the foundation. Mercury costs
about two and a half times as much
as the silver nitrate. but il is always
sure. If YOU buy glass coated with
quicksilver it Will last you - years,
but of even the most expensive glass
treated with the silver nitrate one can
never be quite certain Two pieces NAV
be taken out OF the same solution at
the same time. under Identical condi-
tons, and one may wear satisfactorily.
while the other in little while will
begin TO speck and show flaws. ana no
expert manufacturer can explain the
reason for it.
There is almost no importation of
mirrors into this county in these days.
We still speak OF French and German
mirrors, but these words do not denote
the locality in which they are made,
but are merely trade terms. French
mirrors meaning all in which the thick
ness of the glass is 3-l6 of an inch or
more, and German mirrors referring to
the quality of the glass used, it being
blown and not cast in plates, as in the
glass came into POPULARITY with the fold
ing bed, intended 10 represent a side
board or dressing case. Its lightness
made it peculiarly desirable for such
purposes. Now it is used for as many
purposes as the cabinet MAKER has
styles of furniture.
Although French mirrors are not
imported to any extent the glass from
which the best plate mirrors are made |
is imported from France, the French
gless being softer than the American
and consequently easier to bevel and
to make into the unique designs so
much in vogue
".'If l We're going to select a mirror |
for my own house. said one of the
largest manufacturers. 4 should get
in America for the purpose. 1t is not
so likely to turn yellow by exposure to
the air as the French plate mirrors Of
ten do"
..The finest plate mirrors cost only about
half what they did a little more than Il
decade ago, and of the cheaper grades
there has been an indefinite increase in
the quality and in the reduction of price.
No house is stinted in style and finish
but that it has plenty of mirrors. There
may be no closets in the house, but there
are sure to be advertised cabinet
mantels with beveled plate mirrors" The
walls may be rent with great cracks. but
compensation is offered in "a vestibule
faced with fine mosaic work and plate
glass mirrors" In the higher grades Of
houses the mirrors multiplied. They
are set in bathroom walls, sideboard and
closet doors They cunningly placed,
both for ornamental purposes and 20
produce enlarged effects in small rooms.
Private houses have mirrors in every
available space.
I'm building in the larger cities they
have as definite a place in the bill of esti-
mates as window glass and hardware.
In the architecture of hotels and clubs
the mirror has an even more conspicuous
| place. Almost every elevator has its
| looking glass, public conveyances of all
| sorts are literally supplied with them,
| and. go where one will. he is pretty sure
/ to run up against an image of himself
more or less faithful 1t is the unfaith
| funess Of the image in these bemirrored
| days and ways that causes many persons
! to wish that cheapness in this line had
NOT vet oVertaken U.S. 1t NAV be agree