How to make a mirror? History of the creation, production technology and interesting facts that you did not know

Mirror - is so common and popular subject in any house, shop, sanitary areas, it is difficult to imagine life without it. Handheld and upright, utilitarian mirrors in the car or as part of the interior - they make our lives more informative, safe and interesting.

Where did the mirror

Thanks to mirror a person can receive information about their appearance, look and analyze their environment. But in ancient times the only source of information about their appearance except that the person had the clear waters of the creek, where he could watch his own reflection for the first time.

The mirror is a simple glass of varying purity, coupled with a reflective layer deposited - amalgam. Their production in its current form began not so long ago. In ancient times people used highly polished metal plates (copper, tin, bronze, platinum, and even gold, steel), polished semi-precious stones and semi-precious stones, if they had a high degree of reflectivity. Only after the industrial revolution was launched production on a glass substrate with a reflective coating. And since then, the principle of obtaining practically unchanged.

Reflective surfaces are the ruins of ancient palaces, in the sarcophagi of kings, rich nobles. This subject was often decorated very intricately, for mirrors do handles ivory, framed them with precious stones, pearls. With a mirror and its unusual properties associated with many stories and legends, there are a lot of rumors about how it is used in magical rites. After all, this subject, reflecting a second reality for many people, has been a symbol of the entrance to the underworld.

REFERENCE! Often associated with a smooth surface appearance of twins, evil spirits and various mystical experiences.

What are the mirror

The different mirror? First of all, we in the selection draw attention to its shape, size, the presence of a frame, is combined with the interior. But this is only the outward signs that we have to have a value in terms of personal preference and taste. As for the basics, it is almost the same. The only difference is in the type of cutting, design. By and large, today there are two main production technology:

• from ordinary glass;
• based on silver.

In the first case, take the necessary format float glass, processed edges, make the holes as needed, washed with solutions to maximize purity. Then make sputtering of aluminum, alloys of iron with titanium, chromium and other metals. Then the coating is applied from paints and varnishes. This method is obsolete and is very cheap, but the manufacture of such mirrors is only possible in a small package.

A more modern approach - use of the silver solution. Glass coated copper layer and adhesive chemicals twice lacquered. This method allows to obtain a mirror of any size, the quality is high, moisture resistance - maximum.

What makes the mirror

Today, the mirror is produced by joining two parts - the polished glass and the amalgam. Most often produce glass on a mirror factory in accordance with all the requirements for this purpose in the factory, as a rule, have all the necessary materials and components. Either the glass is made in the other place by order zerkalschikov. An important difference between this glass - high degree of purification, there should be no impurities, as any third-party particles affect the quality of reflection.

Raw material for glass is carefully cleaned in several stages, and sent to the facility. As used minerals and their products as components:

• quartz sand;
• dolomite, feldspar;
• soda and its compounds;
• already available broken glass (waste of good quality);
• coal.

Besides glass, it is necessary to manufacture a composition for the reflective surface. This is usually taken silver oxide. Typically, silver darkens when combined with oxygen, but factory technology can preserve 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 smooth as possible. The components are mixed to obtain it as much as possible, as a result receive a special glass powder - charge. The mass flows through the conveyor into the melting furnace, where the melted glass mass into a homogeneous liquid. For hardening it was baked in an oven at 1500 C. The result obtained is absolutely smooth surface of the web thickness of 4 mm and a width of 3-4 m.

The material sent to the cutting after cooling. The glass is then tested for the presence of marriage, selected sheets are fed to the shop metal deposition.

IMPORTANT! Rejected material can not be used for mirrors, it is processed.

The reflective layer is created by applying a chemical solution to the surface using a special technology. The main task - to achieve the highest level, smooth surface, bubbles and any blotches excluded. For this polish glass brushes, washed, dried, spray applied chemical compositions. The oxidation of aldehydes through contact with ammonia silver compound takes 20 seconds. Upon completion of the chemical reaction solution was dried. As a result, on the one hand there is the glass reflecting surface.

The finished mirror is carefully checked by controllers to the marriage. To protect the fragile reflective layer, it is applied to the ink a dark green greyish. The web is then dried again, checked for chips, cracks, scratches, any defects. If the quality is met - the goods sent to the customer, in shops, warehouses.

Interesting facts about the mirrors

For the first time a mirror of modern type has been received in the XIII century Franciscan monastery. This was the result of long chemical experiments Peckham monk who studied the properties of metals and glass. Once he tin plated glass layer and thus received the prototype mirror today.

The mirror is often used in psychological experiments. For example, it is revealed that not all people recognize his reflection - is a symptom of some mental disorders. It is also observed that not all animals can relate themselves with the reflection in the mirror - Elephants recognize themselves on the movements and try to test his hunch, and a gorilla They understand that in front of them - they are trying to erase the marks on his body, specially posed by scientists, because gorillas are very important status in the pack and visual contact.

Interesting results of the monitoring of the patient, deprived of limbs. Here works the effect of brain plasticity - people mistakenly see the phantom limb and start to feel them, if you put a mirror as necessary, reflect the available arm or leg.

Mirror in science is also used for various purposes. Today travel extensively studied the phenomenon of time, which requires the formation of inter-dimensional tunnel, which so often dream of science fiction writers.

REFERENCE! Scientists have discovered a so-called Casimir effect - a kind of physical force, which appears at quantum field between two opposite mirrors posed in terms Voltage vacuo.

The distance between the mirrors (or metal plates) must be several micrometers. In theory, these conditions may appear "wormhole" through which it is likely to exceed the speed of light.