Brief History of Mirrors
Mirrors first came into use as polished, slightly convex disks made of metals such as bronze, tin, or silver. There is even some evidence of polished obsidian being used as mirrors by Neolithic peoples in prehistoric eras. The history of the mirror is nothing more or less than the history of both human vanity and ingenuity.
The modern method of mirror creation was invented in Venice in the 16th century. Venice and the island of Murano enjoyed a near monopoly on mirror production from India to Scandinavia until the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The patronage of Louis XIV (reg. 1643-1715) and the invention of cast plate glass by Bernard Perrot (1687) raised mirror production and helped make mirrors more widely available.
Three technical innovations helped to further revolutionize mirrors into the important aspect of everyday life they are today. In 1835, Justus von Liebeg invented the process to use silver to back glass instead of the more hazardous and expensive mercury. In 1860, Hans Siemens created the Wanne, a tank furnace. First created for steel foundry uses, this furnace allowed raw materials to be added in a continuous process, aiding in the mass production of glass for mirrors. In 1959, Alistair Pilkington invented the process to manufacture “float glass”, a process allowing for continuous assembly line production of cheap, tin mirrors , a process that also improved the resulting mirror, due to the mirror spending a longer time at a higher heat for irregularities to even out.
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