Genre:

Reportage, Drollery

Subjects:

Invention, Light, Technology, Commerce

    Discusses the case of 'a poor American' who 'patented a glass in which a man can see himself as plainly as others can see him', but because nobody looking in the glass recognized his own image, the inventor failed to sell a 'single specimen'. Adds that the inventor is now trying to invent a 'glass that flatters', an invention with which he hopes to 'realise a considerable fortune'.