Today, there is
a mirror new York in every apartment or house — well, at least in the bathroom. But this
simple household item has its long and difficult history.
The first mirror
was ... a water surface. What could be simpler than to look at your reflection
in a river or a lake? But you can't take a lake with you in your pocket, and
fashionistas of all times and of all peoples wanted to have something more
compact.
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| Ancient Mirrors |
The oldest
mirror, found by archaeologists, is about 7500 years old. These are polished
pieces of obsidian (volcanic stone) from Turkey.
Before the
invention of the glass version of the mirror, metals and minerals were widely
used: gold, silver, bronze, copper, rock crystal, obsidian, - they were
polished to a shine.
In ancientEgypt, mirrors were most often made of copper. In ancient Greece, mirrors were
available only to rich people, and the poor continued to view their reflection
in the water.
Mirrors of gold
and silver were in themselves very expensive to manufacture. Because of that,
they began to produce mirrors of copper and bronze.
Mirrors existed
in almost all ancient cultures. And most often mystical properties were
attributed to them. Everyone remembers the beautiful myth of Medusa Gorgon and
Perseus. Perseus defeated Medusa with a polished shield, in which the Gorgon
saw her reflection and turned to stone.
There are
legends about the use of mirrors by Archimedes as a weapon: first, the Roman
fleet attacking Syracuse was blinded by numerous mirrors, and then the ships
began to flash like candles. Beautiful legends ... Who knows, maybe there are
some real events behind them.
