 | Bob Crager of Lewis Street Glass is a 26 year veteran in the glass business. Lewis Street Glass is a leading Wichita Glass company, serving the entire Wichita/Sedgwick County area since 1919. They do anything and everything having to do with glass, both residential and commercial. They also do Auto glass. They are located at 743 South Market, facing Kellogg on the South, and you can reach them by phone at (316) 263-8259. You can email Bob Crager at bcrager@lewisstreetglass.com |
Glass
2005-09-01 14:36:00
The history of mirrors
ANSWER: The history of mirrors dates back to ancient times when mankind first saw reflections in a pond or river and considered it magic. Polished stone or metal was used in the first early man-made mirrors. Later, glass was used in combination with metals like tin, mercury, and lead to create mirrors. Today, combining glass and metal is still the design used in almost all modern mirrors. Mirrors made by coating flat glass with silver or gold foil dates from Roman times and the inventor is unknown. The definition of a mirror is: "a reflecting surface that forms an image of an object when light rays coming from that object fall upon the surface." A plane mirror, which is flat, reflects light without changing the image. A convex mirror looks like an upside-down bowl, and in a convex mirror, objects look bigger in the center. In a concave mirror which has a bowl shape, objects look smaller in the center. The concave parabolic mirror is the principal element of a reflecting telescope. Interesting, huh?The two-way mirror was originally called the "transparent mirror". The first U.S. patent for a two way mirror went to Emil Bloch, a subject of the Emperor of Russia, residing in Cincinnati, Ohio. This was for U.S. patent number 720,877, and was dated February 17th, 1903. Just like a regular mirror there is a silver coating on the glass of a two-way mirror which when applied to the back of the glass renders the glass opaque and reflective on its face under ordinary light conditions. But unlike a regular mirror, a two-way mirror is transparent when strong light is flashed in the rear. You won't look into your mirror the same way again, will you? More interesting stuff next month…
