silvering

silvering, process of making mirrors by coating glass with silver, discovered by the German chemist Justus von Liebig in 1835. In the process silver–ammonia compounds are reduced chemically to metallic silver, which is deposited on a suitably shaped glass surface. Modern processes may utilize silver solutions and reducer solutions—consisting of invert sugar, Rochelle salt, or formaldehyde—that meet in a spray above clean glass traveling on a conveyor; as the spray falls on the glass surface,...