Mirrors

Initially blown, mirrors were later poured onto a table - a process created by the Manufacture Royale des Glaces de Saint-Gobain in around 1680

The molten glass was poured onto a table and spread out using an instrument by hand. The sheets obtained with irregular and non-parallel surfaces had to undergo an exhausting process of abrasion and polishing.

This process was dethroned in the 1920s and replaced by laminating the molten glass between two rollers.

Float glass is currently the most widely used production process for producing mirrors: it eliminates all the need for final polishing and finishing.