Do you remember the 3D animation in our Virtual Exhibition which illustrates the manufacture of mirror glass and the everyday activity in the glassworks located in the small village of Saint-Gobain, Picardy (France) since 1692? Now, you can watch the whole video by clicking here!

To make this experience possible, Saint-Gobain’s team of archivists cross-referenced plans and drawings of the Manufactory as it was at that time, drawings from the Encyclopédie (edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rondd’Alembert in the 18th century), memoires written by the director of the day, and the plant’s archives.

The 3D reconstruction also led us to rediscover in detail the production processes used at the time. This unprecedented information provides a realistic immersion into the world of the original Saint Gobain, covering the tools used all the way to the distribution of tasks and the role of women in the workshop, with each element recreating as faithfully as possible life in the plant at the time.

Cleaning clay	Furnace feeding	Polishing
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Casting	Removing the crucibles from the furnace	?