  We give a generic description of a liquid mirror system and summarize some
practical information useful to making them. We compare laboratory measurements
of deformations, due to the weight of mercury on the container of a 3.7-m
mirror and to temperature changes on a 1-m container, to finite element
computer simulations. We find that the measurements agree reasonably well with
the numerical simulations. The measurements on the 1-m container show no
evidence of fatigue after a few thermal cycles. These results validate the
computer models of containers described in a companion article.
