John Alfred Brashear with the 1.8-m mirror blank

The 1.8-m mirror blank was cast in Belgium and was shipped to John Brashears Pittsburgh workshop days before the outbreak of WWI. The glass factory was destroyed very shortly after the war started. It took Brashear three and one-half years to figure and polish the mirror before it was sent to Victoria in April, 1918

Brashear was well known for his work in building astronomical and scientific instruments. He also developed an improved process for silvering mirrors. This was the standard process used until vacuum metalizing began replacing it in 1932.

The process used various chemicals but also cane sugar and ethanol. The bureaucrats in Ottawa asked Plaskett why the Observatory was ordering so much rock candy and grain alcohol. The sale of alcohol in Canada was prohibited when the Observatory opened in 1918.