Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1890 — MADE TO BE LOOKED AT. [ARTICLE]

MADE TO BE LOOKED AT.

Herein We are Told How Mirrors aral Manufactured. A Long sad Tedious Prccaas Requiring Oreat Skill—Experts Generally Tarnished by j France—Leveling, Polishing and Silvering s Plate of Glass. If all the people who buy -beveled j mirrors knew what an enormous amount of grinding toil it takes to trim off and polish these edges they , would not wonder that the beveled plates are so much more costly thau the plain. A plate of glass, to be beveled, has to pass through the hands of eight or ten experienced workmen. Ordinarily it occupies the time of each of them for half an hour or more. The fancy shaped plates require even a longer time. The silvering process by which the glasses are prepared as j mirrors adds four or five more workmen to the list. The old mercury process of making mirrors has almost entirely gone~out of date. However, the silvering method is hardly perfected as yet. The big mirror factories employ, as a rule, about 125 men and boys in each. The men are mostly Frenchmen, wherlearned the business-in the big glass factories of France. Most of them educate their sons to the same trade, and make it almost a French monopoly. Most of the plate glass, if indeed not all, that is made into mirrors in thiß country is imported from France. The American glass is but

little used for fine work, for generally it will not take necessary polish. The first operation in beveling a ■plate of glass is one that is known as “roughing,” and is done by workmen called “roughers.” This is done by (grinding the plate with the aid of sand (and water on a rapidly revolving iron plate. Great skill is necessary to make the bevel the same width on the four sides of a piece of glass and to keep the line straight on each separate side. The small sized plates are easily handled but the large ones are placed on a big table and moved over the iron grinder as a saw log is shoved back and fourth when being sawed. Nearly the whole process of beveling, roughing, smoothing, polishing, etc., is carried on with revolving wheels. The “emeriers” are the next after the “roughers” in the work. They do the first of the smoothing and even up any little defects that may have been unnoticed by the others. They do their grinding on a flat iron wheel, but they use a very fine emery powder instead of sand. Polishing is the next thing in order after the smoothing has been finished. This in done on what is called a “white wheel,” though why it should have that name is hard to explain, for Hriß as black and dirty as the rest Pumice stone is used with this wheel to induce a high polish, and it is usually supplied by a little French boy, whose business seems to be to keep everything as wet and sloppy as possible. Thejnext work in the polishing process is done on a felt wheel and with the aid of a French powder-like arrangement known as “rouge.” This rouge is a soft, floury sort of substance, and brings a very bright, shiny polish. - After the bevel has been cat, smoothed and polished, another set of workmen goto work at polishing the surface. The rear surface lequires a very high polish that it may receive silver solution. The slightest defect would be noticeable in the reflection and would make the glass pr.ictically worthless as a mirror. The glass on passing from the beveling rooms goes to an examiner, whose sharp eye detects many a little blemish that would not be noticed by any one untrained in the business. He marks each defect with a soap line and sets some of his assistants at work to wipe it out The surfaces are polished both on felt wheels and with blocks of the same

material. .Sometimes the plate contains a deep scratch that c mnot be removed in the ordinary way. It is then necessary to make what the polishers call a “ducie.” This requires a piece of glass, some wet sand and rouge and a great deal of muscle. The polish has to be removed, the scratch ground out and then the plate is rubbed out and then the scratch is rubbed back to its original smoothness and polish. If the “ducie” is not well made it leaves a hollow on the plate which can bo easily noticed when the silver is put on the back. When the glass has passed the inspection of the examiner it Is sent into the silvering rooms. Here it is thoroughly washed and scrubbed with a fine brush, and then laid out on one of the big iron tables that make the place look like a billiard room. These tables are warmed by steam, which also aids in drying the glass. Then the silver j solution is passed over them. It runs j over the surface evenly in every direction, and stops abruptly at the edges, j where it is as thick as in the- center, j The solution is poured out of a big j earthern pitcher, and looks more like Water than like anything else. The j plates are left on the Iron tables till j the silver “forms,” and then all the foreign matter is' run off by tipping the plate up on edge. The silver becomes of a dark color in the forming, | and when it is thoroughly dried It is 1 painted to preserve its smooth surface, j Before the silver hardens it is moved I into a room sp carefully ceiled and battened as to exclude all particles of flying dust. The room is kept closed coustantly till the hardening takes place, for during that time the silver surface is extremely sensitive. The least jar or speck of dust, or even the ! breath of a person talking above it, i would cause a blemish that would in- , jure the glass. The plates are usually left in this room over night and then ; painted, when they are ready for use.