A mirror is the thing without which a modern man cannot imagine his life. Today it is difficult to imagine a hallway or a bathroom without this attribute. In addition to reflecting a person, it also performs a decorative function, decorating the interior.
History of mirrors
The first mirror in history appeared about 7,500 years ago in Turkey. It was a piece of polished obsidian. It was quite problematic to consider details and shades in it. In addition, it required daily polishing due to the constant oxidation of the surface.
The discoverer of the current mirror is considered to be John Pecan, a Franciscan, who in 1279 described a method of covering ordinary glass with the thinnest layer of lead. The manufacturing technology was quite complicated - the craftsmen blew the mirror surface, and then polished and processed it. In Venice, the full production cycle was kept secret, so the pleasure of contemplating one's reflection was available only to the richest segments of the population.
Only in the 17th century did the French manage to learn the method of making mirrors and even improve it somewhat. Now mirrors have learned to receive casting. They began to reflect with less distortion.
In Russia, the first factory for the production of mirrors was opened under Peter I. Since 1835, the mirrors were coated with silver instead of tin, which affected the quality of the transmitted reflection, it became much better.
Types of mirrors
The use of mirrors is so diverse that there are many signs for their classification. Basic:
- by purpose (pocket, hand, wall, desktop, floor, car, built into furniture, etc.);
- in shape (oval, rectangular, round, asymmetric);
- according to the material of the mirror film - amalgam (aluminum or silver);
- in size (for reflection in full growth - a height of at least 1 m, waist-high - about 4 - 0.8 m, waist-deep in a sitting position);
- by the method of decoration (in a frame, in a frame, in a case, on a stand, in the form of a folder, etc.).
In addition, there are one-way mirrors, which are also called translucent, Gesell's spy mirrors (on the one hand they look like a mirror, on the other they are darkened), which are used for the purpose of discreet tracking and control over people. Popular today can be called aged mirrors that look like antiques, but in fact are made taking into account the latest developments, mirrors with internal illumination, where lighting fixtures are installed behind a reflective surface, huge panoramic mirrors, decorative shard mirrors that imitate broken glass, mirrors -shapes made in the form of a tree, animal or something else and others.
