History of the invention of the mirror. The history of the origin of the mirror When did the mirror appear in Russia

in which country and when did the first mirror appear?

The first glass mirrors were created by the Romans in the 1st century AD. http://www.domstr.ru/Products/dirid_6/te...
It is clear that the very first mirror was an ordinary ... puddle. But here's the trouble - you can't take it with you and you can't hang it on the wall at home.
There were polished pieces of obsidian, which in ancient times were in use in China and Central America, and polished bronze discs, which found distribution in the Mediterranean.
A completely new type of mirror - concave - appeared only in 1240, when they learned how to blow glass vessels. The master blew a large ball, then poured molten tin into the tube (there was no other way to combine metal with glass), and when the tin spread evenly over the inner surface and cooled down, the ball was broken into pieces. And, please: you can look as much as you like, only the reflection was, to put it mildly, a little distorted.
Finally, around 1500, in France, they came up with the idea of ​​"wetting" flat glass with mercury and thus sticking thin tin foil on its surface. However, flat glass in those days was incredibly expensive, and they were only able to make it well in Venice. Venetian merchants, without thinking twice, negotiated a patent from the Flemings and for a century and a half held a monopoly on the production of excellent "Venetian" mirrors (which should be called Flemish). Their price can be represented by the following example: a mirror measuring 1.2 meters by 80 centimeters cost ... two and a half times more than Raphael's canvas!
For a long time, a mirror has been considered a magical object, full of secrets and magic (and even evil spirits). It faithfully served and still serves the pagan cults of many peoples who see in it the cosmic power of the Sun.
Even the ancient Egyptians interpreted the cross, turning into a circle, as an erotic life key. And many centuries later, in the era of the European Renaissance, in this symbol they saw the image of a ladies' dressing mirror with a handle, in which the goddess of love Venus loved to look at herself so much.
The modern history of mirrors dates back to the 13th century, when their handicraft technology was mastered in Holland. It was followed by Flanders and the German the city of masters Nuremberg, where in 1373 the first mirror shop was founded.
In the 15th century, the island of Murano, located near Venice, became the center of glassmaking. in the sea lagoon. The specially created "Council of Ten" jealously guarded the secrets of glassmaking, encouraging the craftsmen in every possible way, at the same time isolating them from the outside world: the profits from the monopoly were too great to lose it. Glassmakers were relocated to the island of Murano under the pretext of protecting Venice from fires. At the beginning of the 16th century, the brothers Andrea Domenico from Murano cut a still hot cylinder of glass lengthwise and rolled it in half on a copper tabletop. The result was a sheet mirror canvas, distinguished by its brilliance, crystal transparency and purity. This is how the main event in the history of mirror production took place.
European monarchs tried by any means to ferret out the mirror secrets of Venice. This was succeeded in the 17th century by the minister of Louis XIV - Colbert. With gold and promises, he seduced three masters from Murano and took them to France.
The French turned out to be capable students and soon even surpassed their teachers. Mirror glass began to be obtained not by blowing, as was done in Murano, but by casting. The technology is as follows: molten glass is poured directly from the melting pot onto a flat surface and rolled out with a roller. The author of this method is called Luca De Nega.
The invention came in handy: the Gallery of Mirrors was being built in Versailles. It was 73 meters long and needed large mirrors. In Saint-Gabin, 306 of these mirrors were made in order to stun with their radiance those who were lucky enough to visit the king at Versailles. How then was it not possible to recognize the right of Louis XIV to be called the "Sun King"?

The South American Indians considered the mirror a portal to another world - one that no man can penetrate. The Chinese have learned to make "magic" mirrors, and the Venetians are fabulously expensive. And, perhaps, nowhere in the world this mysterious invention was left without a trail of legends, beliefs, curses and mysteries, many of which exist to this day.

Bronze Age mirrors

M. de Caravaggio. "Narcissus"

Once upon a time, you could see your reflection only by looking into a reservoir of stagnant water, as Narcissus did from ancient Greek mythology. But then a mirror appeared - the exact history, as well as the time of its occurrence, is lost in the very distant past. Apparently, it all started with polished obsidian plates - natural volcanic glass.

Such finds were made on the territory of modern Turkey and are dated to the seventh millennium BC. It was already the Bronze Age, and in addition to obsidian as a material for the manufacture of a reflective object, this particular alloy of copper and tin gradually began to be used. Bronze mirrors were made round - in the shape of the Sun - both as a sign of reverence for the main deity, and as a sign that it was the mirror that reflected the sun's rays.

Probably, different cultures of the world came to the idea of ​​creating smooth polished surfaces on their own, in any case, mirrors made in the Bronze Age and at the beginning of the Iron Age are found in different parts of the globe. For many peoples, the mirror was used in magical rites and endowed with magical properties. And in ancient China, as a confirmation of their magical nature, some bronze mirrors seemed to demonstrate real magic. Flat on one side and decorated with pattern and relief on the other, they, as expected, showed a reflection of what was in front of them. But if with the help of such a mirror the sunlight was reflected, directing it to the wall, instead of the usual sunbeam on the wall, a pattern on the back side became visible.

For an ancient person, this demonstration was not, perhaps, a serious puzzle, because mirrors without it were credited with a connection with another world, but it is interesting that an exact explanation of this property of some Chinese magic mirrors has not been received so far. The versions put forward - including those about slight curvature of the mirror surface, about the effect of acid, which creates a pattern invisible to the eye on the polished side - could explain the effect obtained, and such experiments were successfully carried out by specialists, but still the secret of Chinese masters that would shed light on the ancient profession of a mirror craftsman remains unidentified. Not all mirrors made in China possessed "magical" properties; in general, the production of these bronze objects, decorated with various kinds of ornaments, became widespread by the end of the first millennium BC.

A large number of ancient mirrors were found in Siberia, in the Minusinsk Basin - several hundred bronze items belonging to different periods and different cultures. On the back side, there are not just ornaments, but whole scenes, especially emphasizing the ritual significance of the mirror for its owner. Obviously, often these items served as an amulet.
From China, mirrors came to the Korean Peninsula, from where the Japanese adopted the method of their manufacture. During the Yayoi and Kofun periods, a bronze mirror was left in the graves of rulers and aristocrats as a way to help the deceased enter the afterlife. In Buddhism, which came to the islands in the sixth century, mirrors also performed ritual functions.

Mirrors in antiquity

From Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt, where a polished copper plate was used to obtain a reflective surface, the technology of making a mirror came to the ancient world. Mirrors were made, in particular, in Cyprus, where there was a large copper deposit. Therefore, the goddess Aphrodite - nicknamed Cyprida after her birthplace - was often depicted with a mirror, which was also a symbol of female beauty. According to some versions, it was the mirror that was held in the hands of the famous statue of Venus de Milo. Philosophers also treated the mirror with respect: Socrates urged to look at one's reflection in order to know and then improve oneself.

The Greeks sang the miraculous power of mirror reflection in mythology - in the battle with Medusa the Gorgon, it was it that helped Perseus win: in order not to meet the gaze of the monster that turns all living things into stone, the hero fought the battle, looking into his shield, as if into a mirror, and was able to cut off Medusa head. But the “mirror of Archimedes” is no longer so mythological in nature, although the reliability of the very fact of burning the enemy fleet with the help of the “death ray” is being questioned. It is traditionally believed that in the Battle of Syracuse, the Greek warriors used the method invented by Archimedes to set fire to enemy ships by directing the sun's rays reflected from the shields at them.

The sign of the female, "mirror of Venus", goes back to the traditional form of antique mirrors.

Metal and stone mirrors, although they performed their function, still had significant drawbacks - they needed constant polishing, and the reflection turned out to be dark and fuzzy. In this, metal mirrors were significantly outperformed by glass ones, the first of which began to be created in the first century AD in the territory of modern Lebanon.

Glass mirrors in Europe

In Europe, the production of glass mirrors dates back to the 13th century. For their manufacture, a glass vessel was used, into which molten tin was poured during the blowing process, then the solidified product was broken, and a mirror was made from the fragments.

The process was time-consuming and expensive; gold was added to the composition of the light-reflecting substance. The cost of products was extremely high - only very wealthy people could afford to have a mirror in the house. In payment for one such product, both the estate and the sea vessel were given. It is interesting that it was much cheaper to order your own portrait from a brilliant master - this, in fact, was done by those who wanted to always have their “reflection” at hand.

In the 16th century, craftsmen from the island of Murano first created a flat mirror - by cutting a still hot glass cylinder and rolling the halves on copper plates. Mirrors are clean and shiny. The invention was appreciated in France - there it literally came to court, the royal family became the main customer of mirrors, and in 1665 the first own manufactory was opened in the country.

Thanks to the development of mirror production, it became possible to paint self-portraits, which gave posterity an idea of ​​the appearance of the painters of the past. Yes, and in their work, the masters used the capabilities of mirrors - Leonardo da Vinci advised artists to look at the reflection of their work in order to assess its authenticity and harmony.

The painting by Rubens demonstrates the Venus effect, popular in art, when a person in front of a mirror looks not at his own reflection, but at the viewer

Later, liquid glass was poured directly onto a reflective surface and rolled out, and in 1835 the German chemist Justus von Liebig invented the silver plating method, a technology still used today. It is difficult to overestimate the practical importance of the mirror in the modern world - it is used in almost all areas of human activity. However, the magical, otherworldly nature of the object, which allows you to look into another world, through the looking glass, still remains one of the main features of mirrors.

A. Steenwinkel. "Double self-portrait"

Modern man, even if he does not believe in the myths of the past, still reads about the Mirror of Einalezh in the Harry Potter saga, believes in numerous signs associated with mirrors, performs ancient rituals - for example, look into a home mirror, returning from the road for a forgotten thing.
Despite all the accumulated knowledge, the centuries-old culture of mankind suggests that it is better to treat the looking glass with caution and respect - as civilizations of the past did.

E. Manet. "Bar at the Folies Bergère"

The painting "Bar at the Folies Bergère" is one of those that make the viewer - the mysterious reflection in the mirror is to blame.

For the first time, people saw their reflection in the water surface - the surface of the lake, the puddles left after the rain were a kind of mirrors. Our ancestors did not immediately realize that the image they see is what they are. Despite the fact that the mirror, it would seem, is a common object made today from glass with a reflective coating applied to it, many mystical stories and legends are associated with it. So where did this attribute first appear and what did it look like?

How mirrors appeared in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome

In ancient Egypt, mirrors appeared in the third century BC. They hardly resembled a modern accessory and were a polished surface, for example, black marble. Later came bronze, silver and gold. Their shape remained round. This item was surrounded by a magical halo. He was identified with the sun and moon.

In ancient Greece, the appearance of mirrors is usually attributed to about the fifth century BC, since there are no earlier references to them. The reverse side was decorated with engraving with various images. Among the Greeks, it served as a divine attribute.

In ancient Rome, the very first reflective surface was polished bronze. Similar products were decorated with various patterns and precious stones. The Romans were the first to change their round shape. As a result, pocket accessories and large full-length accessories appeared, which began to be mounted on the wall. Also appeared desktop products with a stand.

How did glass mirrors come about?

The glass mirror appeared in Holland in the first century AD. Glass plates were connected with a lead or tin gasket. This method of manufacture made it possible to see one's reflection more clearly, but there were still slight distortions.

REFERENCE! A little later, they began to use a different method of manufacturing. It consisted in the fact that hot tin was poured into a glass container, and after cooling it was split into pieces.

Improving the method of making mirrors in Venice

Three hundred years later, craftsmen from Venice immediately began to attach tin to a flat surface of glass. Soon Venice became the main manufacturer of such mirrors. Local craftsmen created a reflective mixture with the addition of gold and bronze, which made the reflection devoid of flaws. It was more beautiful than a person in reality.

Later, the glass there began to be coated with silver sputtering, which made it possible to achieve a clear and distinct reflection. Entire mirror cabinets appeared in the palaces of rich people. They served as a sign of wealth and were expensive.

When did mirrors appear in Russia

In Russia, the mirror was not recognized for a very long time and was afraid. It was considered an "overseas sin", it was forbidden to hang it in the house until the end of the 17th century. The attribute was used for divination, various conspiracies. Many superstitions were associated with it.

Only after Peter I came to power in Russia, the mirror craft was born. Products were produced in very large sizes. Later they began to decorate with a patterned border, they finished the walls. Basically, this accessory served as a decoration for the home.

During the Rococo period, entire mirrored rooms and galleries were built. In the era of classicism, grand staircases and huge halls were decorated with accessories. In the 20th century, this item ceased to be an attribute of luxury and decoration and became an ordinary household item.

Mysticism and mirrors

Since ancient times, the mirror was considered a mystical object with magical properties. Until now, many superstitions are associated with it. It is believed that if you break it, then misfortune will soon happen. It is also used in various divination in order to see the future and change fate. The mirror surface is a portal to the other world, so they are hung when a person dies. It is believed that the soul of the deceased can linger in it.

REFERENCE! Mirrors perfectly preserve the energy of the person looking into it. They can be emitters of both positive and negative energy. Therefore, you should not see your reflection in a bad mood. And vice versa, smiling at your reflection, you can be positively charged for the whole day.

You should choose a place for the location of this element of the interior, knowing a few rules:

• you can not hang it opposite the bed and the front door;
• it should not reflect ugly objects in the house (garbage, toilet bowl, dirty laundry, etc.);
• reflection of beautiful objects promises an increase in cash flow;
• the accessory can be hung in the kitchen in such a way that it reflects the dining table with food (it is believed that food will attract abundance to the house).

Mirror today

Today, the mirror has a variety of options in shape, size and color. It is used in almost all areas of life. It serves as an integral part in creating the overall interior of the room. Designers use it to visually increase space, adjust and enhance perception.

In medicine, concave mirrors are used. They are used by otolaryngologists, dentists, ophthalmologists. They are used in medical instruments and devices.

The military uses various devices with complex optical schemes, in which the mirror surface is the main element. Using reflective properties, they collect solar energy, thanks to which you can cook food, warm water and even increase crops.

In the 21st century, mirrors are made in huge factories using technology. They have three layers:

1. Silver plated glass.
2. Copper layer (protects against moisture and mechanical stress).
3. polymer coating.

The history of mirrors is undoubtedly interesting. Everyone needs to take it into account and be guided by some aspects in everyday life. In addition, it is important to understand the value of the aesthetic perception of one's own reflection.

John Pecum described a method for coating glass with a thin layer of tin.

The production of the mirror looked like this. The master poured molten tin into the vessel through a tube, which spread evenly over the surface of the glass, and when the ball cooled, it was broken into pieces. The first mirror was imperfect: concave fragments slightly distorted the image, but it became bright and clear.

Application

Application in everyday life

The first mirrors were created in order to monitor one's own appearance [ ] .

Currently, mirrors, especially large ones, are widely used in interior design to create the illusion of space, large volume in small rooms. Such a tradition arose in the Middle Ages, as soon as the technical possibility of creating large mirrors appeared in France, not as ruinously expensive as the Venetian ones. Since that time, not a single wardrobe is complete without mirrors [ ] .

Mirrors as reflectors

Application in scientific instruments

As an optical instrument, flat, concave and convex spherical, parabolic, hyperbolic and elliptical mirrors are used.

Mirrors are widely used in optical instruments - spectrophotometers, spectrometers in other optical instruments:

• SLR Cameras
• Lenses, for example, a mirror-lens telephoto lens of the Maksutov system (MTO).
• Periscope and mirror pseudoscope

Safety devices, car and traffic mirrors

In cases where a person's view is limited for some reason, mirrors are especially useful. So, in every car, on road bikes there is one or more mirrors, sometimes slightly convex - to expand the field of vision.

On the roads and in tight parking lots, stationary convex mirrors help avoid collisions and accidents.

In video surveillance systems, mirrors provide a view in more directions from a single video camera.

Translucent mirrors

Translucent mirrors are sometimes referred to as "mirror glasses" or "one-way glasses". Such glasses are used for covert observation of people (in order to control behavior or espionage), while the spy is in a dark room, and the object of observation is in a lighted one. The principle of operation of mirror glass is that a dim spy is not visible against a bright reflection.

Application in the military

In medieval texts, a mirror is an image, a symbol of another world. The mirror is a symbol of eternity, since it contains everything that has passed, what is now, everything that is to come.

The literary device "through the looking glass" is widely used by the authors of books. The most famous was Lewis Carroll's dilogy - Alice in Wonderland and Alice in Through the Looking Glass. A similar technique was used by Gaston Leroux: in the book The Phantom of the Opera, Christina enters the underground dwelling of the Phantom through a mirror. Through the mirror in Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors Olya gets in - the heroine of the fairy tale of the same name by Vitaly Gubarev and staged on it

There is not a single apartment in the world that does not have a mirror. In fact, the history of the mirror goes back into the distant past. The age of the oldest mirror on earth is about seven thousand years. Before the invention of the mirror, stone and metal were used: gold, silver, bronze, tin, copper, rock crystal.

There is a legend that the Gorgon Medusa turned to stone when she saw her image in the shield of the beautiful Perseus, polished to a shine. Scientists archaeologists believe that the earliest mirrors are polished pieces of obsidian found in Turkey, dating back about 7500 years. However, not a single antique mirror could, for example, look at oneself from behind or distinguish shades of color.

Everyone knows the ancient Greek myth of Narcissus, who lay for hours on the shore of the lake, admiring his reflection in the water, as in a mirror. In the times of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, wealthy people could afford to buy a mirror made of polished metal. The manufacture of such a mirror was not an easy task, and polished mirrors made of steel or bronze were no larger than a palm in size. In addition, the surface of such a mirror quickly oxidized and had to be constantly cleaned.

Experts in the field of linguistics believe that the word - mirror - came from Ancient Rome - the Latin spelling looked like - spektrum. Then this word, having undergone phonetic, morphological, lexical translation in different languages, began to be used everywhere. For example, in German it has become Spiegel ("Spiegel" - a mirror).

The invention of the mirror in the modern sense can be traced back to 1279, when the Franciscan John Pecamum described a way to cover ordinary glass with a thin layer of lead.

The first mirror manufacturers were the Venetians. The technology was quite complicated: a thin layer of tin foil was superimposed on paper, which on the other hand was covered with mercury, laid over the mercury again, and only then glass was applied on top, which pressed these layers down, and meanwhile the paper was removed from them. Venice jealously guarded its monopoly on mirrors.

In 1454, the Doges issued an order forbidding mirror-makers to leave the country, and those who had already done so were ordered to return to their homeland. "Defectors" were threatened with punishments against their relatives. Killers were sent in the wake of particularly stubborn fugitives. As a result, the mirror remained an incredibly rare and fantastically expensive commodity for three centuries. Despite the fact that such a mirror was very cloudy, it still reflected more light than it absorbed.

The French king Louis XIV was literally obsessed with mirrors. It was during his time that the firm "Saint-Gobain" unraveled the secret of Venetian production, after which prices fell sharply. Mirrors began to appear on the walls of private houses, in picture frames. In the 18th century, two-thirds of Parisians already acquired them. In addition, ladies began to wear small mirrors on their belts, attached with chains.

This mirror production process remained with minor changes until 1835, when the German professor Justus von Liebig discovered the fact that using silver, you can get a much clearer image in the mirror.

Considering how late the glass mirror appeared in the history of mankind, one cannot but arouse astonishment how huge a role it plays in superstitions and in popular culture in general. Already in the Middle Ages, in the verdict of a French witch, among the list of her magical devices, there is also a fragment of a mirror. With the help of a mirror, Russian girls guessed at the groom. The mirror, as it were, opened up the space of the other world, it both beckoned and frightened, therefore they treated it cautiously: sometimes they curtained it, sometimes they brought a cat, sometimes they turned it away to the wall, and sometimes they broke it.

The ability to see oneself from the outside led to colossal consequences: Europeans began to control their behavior (and even facial expressions), the emancipation of the individual increased, and philosophical reflection intensified (after all, even this word means “reflection”). When in Europe at the end of the 19th century problems arose with the self-identification of a person, this found a way out in increased attention to the mirror.

Equipping rooms with mirrors has a two-hundred-year history in Russia, its palaces and noble estates. In ballrooms, bright and high, the Russian nobility paid special attention to the placement of mirrors in order to create the effect of space.

Ten years ago, the usual mirror set in the interior of an apartment was limited to mirrors in the bathroom, hallway and closet. With the development of European-style renovation, exclusive interior, the art of using mirrors in a room has gained a second wind.

An interesting trend of recent years is the departure from the mirror as an object of a utilitarian function and its use to enhance the illusion of light and spaciousness, hiding the flaws in the layout of the home. The explanation for this is very simple. We are still experiencing a shortage of meters, layout inconveniences and other architectural shortcomings. The mirror is a very powerful tool in solving such problems. The correct distribution of light sources and its reflection significantly expands the scope of the room, creating the illusion of infinity of space.

The plane of the mirror is subjected to design experiments: it is crossed out in every possible way, painted, “aged”, given color, and the reflective properties of sheet metal are used. A baguette is used to decorate mirrors.