this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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[–] Grabthar@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Pretty sure they just poured silver nitrate over glass. You can still buy kits to do that to re-silver old mirrors for the original look. From what I can find, the layered ones were older, and they used tin and mercury which made breaking a mirror a rather unlucky event.

[–] starman2112@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

I'm sure there are varying methods, but typically you silver the back of glass to make a mirror

[–] Grabthar@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I think you are right. I keep finding different ways they did it, so sounds like the 1800s was a busy period in the development of mirror technology!

[–] NikkiDimes@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Huh, so 7 years bad luck was actually just heavy metal poisoning? Fascinating...