Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-12
4 CHAPTER ON MIRRORS

Eyeglasses were made of mixed metal, chiefly
of copper, and were susceptible of a lustre
which Sir q. Wilkinson says has been partially
restored in some of those discovered at
Thebes, though buried in the earth for many
centuries. They were round or oval, and in
serted in handles of metal, wood or stone,
whose form and ornamentation varied with
the tastes of their owners.
In the catacombs of ancient Rome, mirrors
have been found which appear to be made of
mixture of bronze and lead or tin, while
others are of peculiar kind of stone supposed
TO be. vitriied lava.
Pliny mentions the rage for silver mirrors
as an evidence of Roman extravagance, and
says every Roman girl wanted one. Plutarch
says that Demosthenes had loolxing-glass :
probably Of silver and sufficiently large to re-
fleet his entire person-before which he was
accustomed to rehearse his orations and ar
range his gestures.
There were two serious objections to metal
nc mlrrors-their weight and the fact that
they were liable to distort the features of
those looking into them. The latter was, of
course, offensive to ancient beaux and bellies,
ann led to the substitution for metal of OBJ
sidlan, black stone, sometimes transpar-
ent to quote again from Pliny-''but of so
dul transparency that, as a mirror, it rem
object"
In passing, we would observe that when the
Spanlards discovered America they found mir
rors made of substance which they called
Sne meas stone, because it was used by the
feruylan princes for ornamental purposes. It
was sort OF pyrites, susceptible of high de
gree ot polish and excellently well calculated
AS the ancients were familiar with glass.
II, seems strange that they were not acauaint-
ed with mirrors made therefrom True. Aris-
totie, some 400 years B. O., wrote. 'Glass
and crystal must be lined with a sheet Of
seeted %g5a N n order tS to give back the image
glass mirrors as modern invention
Inc hrst mention of glass mirrors after
tneir present torm-occurs in a work on optics
written by an English monk, Johannes Peck
nam, In lZf9 In 1T he speaks of ''glass mir.
rors, covered on the back with lead, that re-
fleet no image if the lead is scraped off," And
another careful investigator thinks the inven-
ton cannot date from period earlier than
the middle of the thirteenth century, because
IN France, during the fourteenth century,
glass mirrors were scarce, while those Of
metal were abundant.
The crusades, which did SO much to ac-
quaint western with the industries and civil
ization OF eastern Europe was the direct
cause OF the introduction of the manufacture
OF glass INTO Venice. For long time, this
was the only place where glass was manufac-
tured, and thither every other country, -desir-
ing articles OF glass, was compelled to 60 or
send. Venetian glass rapidly became famous.
and its sale the source Of an immense revenue
to the republic.
Naturally, Venice was anxious to secure 10
herself for the future so valuable a monopoly:
and, TO this end, through the Council Of t6ee
Ten" she ordered the glass-makers to leave
the city proper, and establish themselves at
Murano, on an island little distance north.
east from Venice Moreover it was proclaim
ed that if workman should export anyshinr
that might enable other countries to enter m.
to competition with Venice-so far as the
making of glass was concerned-his property
would be contscated and himself liable to be
put to death.