Polished plate is a type of hand-blown glass. It is produced by casting glass onto a table and then subsequently grinding and polishing the glass. This was originally done by hand, and then later by machine. It was an expensive process requiring a large capital investment.
Other methods of producing hand-blown window glass included: broad sheet, blown plate, crown glass and cylinder blown sheet. These methods of manufacture lasted at least until the end of the 19th Century. The early 20th Century marks the move away from hand-blown to machine manufactured glass such as rolled plate, machine drawn cylinder sheet, flat drawn sheet, single and twin ground polished plate and float glass.
The Frenchman, Louis Lucas de Nehou, in 1688, in conjunction with A. Thevart, succeeded in perfecting the process of casting plate-glass. Mirror plates previous to the invention had been made from blown "sheet" glass, and were consequently very limited in size. De Nehou's process of rolling molten glass poured on an iron table rendered the manufacture of very large plates possible.
In 1773 English polished plate (by the French process) was produced at Ravenhead.
By 1800 a steam engine was used to carry out the grinding and polishing of the cast glass.
Famous quotes containing the words plate glass, polished, plate and/or glass:
“I sometimes have the sense that I live my life as a writer with my nose pressed against the wide, shiny plate glass window of the “mainstream” culture. The world seems full of straight, large-circulation, slick periodicals which wouldn’t think of reviewing my book and bookstores which will never order it.”
—Jan Clausen (b. 1943)
“[Corneille] was inspired by Roman authors and Roman spirit, Racine with delicacy by the polished court of Louis XIV.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Our press is certainly bankrupt in the “thrill of awe”Motherwise reverence: reverence for nickel plate and brummagem. Let us sincerely hope that this fact will remain a fact forever; for to my mind a discriminating irreverence is the creator and protector of human liberty.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“We all drew on the comfort which is given out by the major works of Mozart, which is as real and material as the warmth given up by a glass of brandy.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)