Metallic Glass

In The Hesperus Prophecy, Declan mistakenly assumes the translucent barrier separating Nancy’s Place from the Analytic Engine Room is made from silicon-based glass.

Instead, the wall is made from amorphous metal. Amorphous metal lacks metal’s typically ordered structure. The non-crystalline atomic arrangement gives it a transparent, glass-like appearance. Amorphous metal glass was first described in 1960, although the Clypeate developed it decades earlier.

In The Hesperus Prophecy, there are a handful of reasons why Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla agree on building the wall using amorphous glass.

First, applying current to metallic glass will change the color. This allows the wall to look translucent when ALVA wants privacy, or transparent when communication is desired. Additionally, unlike silicon glass, which is an electrical insulator, amorphous metal glass is a good conductor. This allows the wall to be used as a projection screen when ALVA displays the images extracted from Declan’s mind. Lastly, metallic glass is three times stronger than titanium.

Examples of transparent aluminum glass