The Science Behind Gold Mirror?
Here's an interesting one for more discussion. I currently have two pairs of gold mirrored glasses. Previously I owned a pair of Bollé Irex 100 which I bought in 1980 and wore religiously for 16 years that had a very dark brown lens and gold mirror which (before ANSI) had a VLT of 9%. I wore them everywhere for everything in that time, including driving. They gave a rich and almost overwhelming amber view and did alter colour perception. Sadly, they finally bit the dust quite a few years ago. However, back to the two I currently own, another Bollé Polarised pair (left) and a pair of Smith Chromapop gold mirrors. (below left)
The Smith Reddingtons are an amber lens with gold mirror and the Bollés are a light rose lens with gold mirror.
Here's the thought bubble. If the mirror colour reflects the colour of the mirror, thus reducing its perception of that colour to the wearer of the glasses; what changes (and colour) does a gold mirror reduce or effect the most?
I note in many of NASA's moon photo's and also of spacewalk photos of astronauts that gold is used on the astronaut's visors. Given NASA's budget and research resources, they no doubt have looked into this deeply. Would this indicate that gold is the king of mirrored coatings?
Just for fun and interest here are the reverse views of the Bollé and the Smith for anyone who is interested.
