Even in childhood from my grandfather, I heard about mirrors that even if they don’t know how to talk (as in Pushkin’s fairy tale), but show what is inaccessible to the human eye. Grandpa said what made them in Ancient China, and the secret of the masters to this day no one can solve the day. As an adult, I traveled all over Celestial in search of magical Chinese mirrors. And then one day I smiled luck. An old friend of my father who knew about my hobby, gave me a bronze mirror, which I passionately dreamed of. 
Photo from open source It was old, handmade, facial the side is slightly convex, polished so that it can be use like a mirror, and the back was decorated with an image Leiguna – the god of thunder with the body of a dragon and the head of a man. Figure green oxide, which often found on old bronze objects, giving them a special charm and pointing to a very respectable age. I knew if point the mirror at the sun, and the sunny bunny reflected by him at a white wall or sheet of paper, then an image will appear on it, which is not on the front side of the mirror, but is on the back. With trembling hands, I took the mirror, but only at that moment drew attention to the fact that the day was cloudy and rainy. Had to to wait. But the next morning my patience was rewarded with more than. The mirror donated by an old Chinese turned out to be the most on is magical: on a white sheet of whatman paper which I specifically stock for this solemn occasion, reflected Leigun in all beauty. WHAT WILL SCIENCE SAY? When in China they learned to do transparent mirrors – not known for certain, but the oldest of The found magic mirrors date back to 500 BC. e. He was discovered during excavations of the tomb of a noble nobleman in southern China. Following the mirror lay in the tomb of the emperor of the Tang Dynasty, who died around 950 AD e. With him, 26 wives were buried in the same grave at the age of 13 to 26 years. There was one mirror at all! 
A photo from open sources And only after 500 years, in the era of government Ming Dynasty, magic mirrors are no longer a rarity for rulers of China. Mirrors of this particular era can now be found in the largest museums in the world. I saw and fell in love with them forever. AND of course, like many other people, the mystery haunted me their manufacture. But I found out that dozens have been written on this subject. articles and books. And this despite the fact that none of the authors have ever could reveal the secret of mirrors. How were they made? Why did images printed on the back of the mirror? And finally the biggest mystery is why only one of the hundreds made mirrors showed magical properties? No one answers these questions. did not know. More precisely, each author believed that he had found a clue, but then new work appeared, completely discrediting the previous one. First attempts to open the veil of secrecy made in the XI century. chinese scientist Shen Kua. He believed that when casting a thinner part of the mirror cools faster than thick, and this leads to small, surface curvatures invisible to the eye. 
A photo from open sources After a few centuries, David Brewster – Scottish physicist and inventor of our favorite kaleidoscope toy, wrote that the image generated by the mirror is not connected with the picture on the reverse side, and is applied with a weak solution of acid on front surface, after which it is ground. In the XIX century. western scientists believed that the magic mirror was made in the following way. After casting, the master applied relief on the back of the mirror picture. Then he polished the front side, pressing hard on it. At the same time, thinner places of the mirror located above the troughs topography, slightly bent and less exposed abrasive. After polishing, they straightened and protruded slightly over mid-level mirrors. As a result, on the front surface figures from convex micromirrors appeared corresponding to the relief images on the back of the product. They formed drawing inside a sun bunny. The explanation sounded quite authoritatively, if not one but. No one in Europe or America I could not make a single mirror according to this recipe. What is it there was a surprise of the world community when in the middle of the century the Japanese brought to Europe a whole batch of magic mirrors. Where are they their got it – is unknown. Maybe they stole a secret from the Chinese masters or learned to make them yourself. Be that as it may, but in 1877 a whole exhibition of magic mirrors from Japan! 
A photo from open sources However, the Chinese did not remain in debt and showed the world another masterpiece – an old mirror 1.3 cm thick. With such a thickness of the bronze layer, all explanations European scientists looked funny and ridiculous. But the most incredible consisted in another. This time the drawing in the sunbeam is not corresponded to the relief on the back of the mirror! There was depicts the sun rising over the lake, and in the reflected sunny a ray appeared on the wall of the temple moon and stars. Magic mirror asked another challenge to the scientific world. Moreover, the previous one is still I wasn’t unraveled … And WHO AND NOW THERE IS THERE At the beginning of the 20th century. a new wave of interest in Chinese mirrors arose. But here, alas, First World War and then Second World War broke out. And at the end 1950s it turned out that magic mirrors in neither China nor No one else does Japan – there is nobody. Some of the old masters died, others were killed … Fortunately, in 1961, the Prime Minister Of China Jou Enlai, visiting the Shanghai Museum, became interested magic mirrors and ordered to restore their production. But it is one thing to give a command, and quite another to fulfill it. Some universities and technical institutes fought for two years this task, but, alas, they did not succeed. And only on The third year the world was shown the magic of Chinese mirrors of the latest industries that were in no way inferior to the ancients. Images, reflected by them, then corresponded, then did not correspond to the relief on the back of the mirror. So, old technology managed to revive. But, as before, the secret of manufacture was kept in the strictest secret. 
A photo from open sources Today, several dozen scientists are trying unravel the secret of Chinese mirrors, but to no avail. Are listed at least six ways in which you can make a magical mirror. Only for some reason none of them can do this. A few years ago, Russian and American scientists cut a magic mirror to check if heterogeneities exist metal in places that project an image. Let’s go the latest microscopes, liquid crystals, modern technology, but structural heterogeneities could not be detected. In the end in one scientific journal published an article that said: “In the history of optics can hardly find such an exciting mystery which can be compared with the mystery of the magic mirrors of the East, although over the explanation of their amazing properties, humanity beats almost four millennia. ”THE UNDERSTANDING — IN RUSSIA We have in Siberia a place that keeps many secrets, including those related to mirrors. This is the Minusinsk Basin, located 300 km from Krasnoyarsk. Incredible, but in these far from sunny places archaeologists have discovered traces of ancient cultures that have mastered bronze production in the III millennium BC e., that is, earlier than in China. But the most incredible thing is that in Minusinsk About four hundred ancient bronze mirrors were found in the basin. Half of them are kept in local museums. These priceless ones lie exhibits face down, and this suggests that the researchers studied exclusively drawings and inscriptions, located on the back, back side. And on the front, covered a layer of patina, did not pay any attention. I offered museum staff to hand over one of the mirrors to the workshop and polish front side. Suddenly it turns out that these mirrors are magic ?! But they looked at me as abnormal. It’s understandable, the task museum workers – to preserve a priceless relic, and not to polish a mirror, which is a thousand years old. Even to unravel the greatest mystery … In China, magic mirrors were composed legends. One of them says that on a sunny day a wife Emperor walked through the garden and admired her reflection in bronze in the mirror. A ray of sun reflected off the mirror, and on a snow-white wall the palace appeared an image of a dragon. Just like it was painted on the back of the mirror. So, according to legend, and the magical property of Chinese mirrors that became call nothing but transparent. And this is their amazing property. even found in the proverb: “In the sun, truth is always comes out. “Sergey SHAPOVALOV
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