A mirror is such a widespread and sought-after item in any home, store, or sanitary zone that it is difficult to imagine your life without it. Pocket and full-length, utilitarian rear-view mirrors in the car or as part of the interior - they make our life more informative, safe, interesting.
Where did the mirror come from
Thanks to the mirror, a person can receive information about his own appearance, analyze his appearance and the state of the environment. But in ancient times, the only source of information about his appearance was a man except for the clear waters of a stream, where for the first time he could observe his own reflection.
The mirror is a simple glass of various degrees of purification, combined with a reflective sprayed layer - an amalgam. Their production in its present form began not so long ago. In ancient times, people used polished metal plates (copper, tin, bronze, platinum, even gold, steel), polished gems and semiprecious stones, if they had a high degree of reflectivity. Only after the industrial revolution was the production of glass-based with a reflective coating established. And since then, the principle of receipt has not changed.
Reflecting surfaces are found on the ruins of ancient palaces, in the sarcophagi of kings, rich nobles. This item was often decorated very intricately, ivory handles were made for mirrors, framed with precious stones and pearls. Many tales and legends are associated with the mirror and its unusual properties, there are many rumors about how it is used in magical rites. After all, this object, reflecting the second reality, for many people was a symbol of entry into the other world.
REFERENCE! Often associated with the mirror surface are the appearance of doubles, evil spirits and various mystical events.
What are the mirrors
How do mirrors differ? First of all, when choosing, we pay attention to its shape, size, the presence of a frame that is combined with the interior. But these are only external signs that matter to us in terms of personal preferences and taste. As for the foundation itself, it is almost the same. The difference is only in the type of slicing, design. By and large, today we can distinguish two main production technologies:
- from ordinary glasses;
- based on silver.
In the first case, they take polished glass of the required format, process the edges, make holes as necessary, wash them with solutions to maximum purity. Then do the deposition of aluminum, alloys of iron with titanium, chromium and other metals. Then a coating of paints is applied. This method is considered obsolete and is very cheap, but the manufacture of such mirrors is possible only with small sizes.
A more modern approach is the use of silver solution. A copper layer and sticky chemicals are applied to the glass, varnished twice. This method allows you to get mirrors of almost any size, the quality will be increased, moisture resistance - maximum.
What are mirrors made of
Today, a mirror is obtained by combining two parts - polished glass and amalgam. Most often, glass is produced in a mirror factory in accordance with all requirements, for this the factory, as a rule, has all the necessary materials and components. Or glass is made in another place by order of the mirror. An important difference between such a glass is a high degree of purification, it should not contain impurities, because any third-party particles affect the quality of reflection.
Raw materials for glass are thoroughly cleaned in several stages and sent for re-melting. As components used minerals and their products:
- sand quartz;
- dolomite, feldspar;
- soda and its compounds;
- existing broken glass (good quality waste);
- coal.
In addition to glass, it is necessary to make a composition for a reflective surface. For this, silver oxide is usually taken. Silver usually darkens when combined with oxygen, but factory technology allows you to maintain its original whiteness. The result is a silver reflective surface.
Manufacturing technology
The basis for the mirror, as mentioned above, is always transparent glass of high purity and as even as possible. The components for its production are mixed as much as possible, as a result, they receive a special glass powder - a mixture. The mass enters through a conveyor to a melting furnace, where it is remelted into a homogeneous liquid glass mass. For hardening, it is baked in an oven at 1500 ° C. As a result, an absolutely smooth surface of the web with a thickness of only 4 mm and a width of 3-4 m is obtained.
The material is sent to cut after cooling. Then the glass is checked for the presence of marriage, selected sheets are sent to the metal deposition workshop.
IMPORTANT! Defective material cannot be used for mirrors; it is recycled.
A reflective layer is created by applying a chemical solution to the surface using a special technology. The main task is to achieve the most even, smooth surface, bubbles and any inclusions are excluded. To do this, the glass is polished with brushes, washed, dried, chemical compositions are applied with a spray. The process of oxidation of aldehydes through contact with ammonia silver compounds takes only 20 seconds. At the end of the chemical reaction, the solution is dried. As a result, a reflective surface appears on the glass on one side.
The finished mirror is carefully checked by the inspectors for marriage. To protect the fragile reflective layer, a dark green, grayish shade is applied to it. Then the canvas is dried again, checked for chips, cracks, scratches, any defects. If the quality is met, the goods are sent to the customer, to stores, to warehouses.
Interesting facts about mirrors
For the first time, a mirror of a modern type was obtained back in the XIII century in a Franciscan monastery. This was the result of lengthy chemical experiments by the monk Pekama, who was studying the properties of metals and glass. Once he covered the glass with a layer of tin and thus received the prototype of today's mirror.
The mirror is often used in psychological experiments. For example, it was revealed that not all people recognize their reflection - this is a symptom of some mental abnormalities. It is also noted that not all animals can correlate with the reflection in the mirror - elephants recognize themselves by their movements and try to verify their hunch, and gorillas understand that they are in front of them, they are trying to erase the marks on their bodies, specially made by scientists, because for gorillas are very important status in the pack and eye contact.
The results of observations of patients without limbs are interesting. Here the effect of brain plasticity is triggered - people mistakenly see phantom limbs and begin to feel them if they put the mirror in the right way, reflecting the existing arm or leg in it.
The mirror in science is also used for a variety of purposes. Today, the phenomenon of time travel is being actively studied, which requires the formation of interdimensional tunnels, which science fiction writers so often dream of.
REFERENCE! Scientists have discovered the so-called Casimir effect - a kind of physical force that appears in a quantum field between two opposite mirrors under conditions of voltage in a vacuum.
The distance between the mirrors (or metal plates) should be a few micrometers. Theoretically, under these conditions a “wormhole” may appear, with the help of which it is possible to exceed the speed of light.
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