Today is the feast day of St John the Divine, patron of mirror makers. 10 facts about mirrors:
- The first mirrors were things that occurred in nature, such as pools of Water. In due course, people began making mirrors from polished obsidian (a type of volcanic glass), Copper, Gold or brass. Mirrors made from Glass first started to appear in Lebanon around 400BC. Then in 1835, in Germany, Justus Von Liebig discovered that applying a thin layer of metallic Silver to clear glass created a reflective surface and invented the mirror as we know it today.
- The reflection you see in a mirror doesn’t actually exist on its surface. Two people looking in the same mirror will see slightly different images because the reflected light hits their eyes at a different angle. (See also Rainbows, fact 4). It’s also a myth that a mirror reverses your image – that’s an illusion. It’s possible, however, to make a mirror that reflects you as others see you. It’s called a true mirror. It’s easy enough to make one for yourself – just get two normal mirrors and place them at a 90 degree angle from each other and view from the join.
- Where does the superstition that breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck come from? The Romans. They believed that breaking a mirror damaged your soul. However, your soul and life are renewed every seven years, so when your soul gets renewed, the damage goes away. If you do break a mirror, all is not lost. Pick up the pieces, and put them in a bag. Throw the bag into a fast moving river and that will carry the bad luck away. If you don’t have a fast flowing river to hand, bury it in soil instead.
- Some more mirror folklore: actors believe it is bad luck to see their reflection while looking over the shoulder of another person. The Victorians believed the soul of a dead person could become trapped in a mirror, which is why they would cover the mirrors in the house when a deceased person was laid out before the funeral. Some ancient cultures believe that mirrors reflected the ‘shadow soul,’ the true nature of the person being reflected. Emperor Qin Shi Huang, of the Qin Dynasty in AD 25, claimed his mirror showed him the inward qualities of those who looked into it, which he claimed helped him to become the first emperor. This belief may also be the origin of the idea that Vampires and demons have no reflections, because they don’t have souls. Mirrors were often believed to take in and store what they reflect for use later, which may have been the inspiration behind the talking mirror in Snow White.
- Mirrors can cause hallucinations. Scientists are researching the claim that if you sit in a darkened room looking at your reflection from 3ft away, after about 10 minutes, distortions in your reflection become noticeable. People say they can see other human faces or animals, too. Handy if you can’t afford LSD. It occurred to me that this could have been the origin of the Bloody Mary myth – that if you chant ‘Bloody Mary’ 13 times while looking in a mirror in a dark room, she will appear.
- Another mirror myth is that Archimedes used a large array of mirrors to reflect the sun and set fire to his enemies’ ships. While it has never been proved one way or another whether this actually happened, the TV show Mythbusters tried to recreate "Archimedes Death Ray" but were unsuccessful. They concluded the defeat was more likely due to the people on the enemy boats being dazzled by the reflected light.
- There are mirrors which reflect sound and matter as well as light. Mirrors that reflect sound waves are called “acoustic mirrors”. They were used in Britain during World War II, before radar was developed, to detect sound waves coming from enemy aircraft. There are still some standing at Denge, near Dungeness, Kent. Malta has one, too, in Maghtab. It is known locally as “il widna,” which means “the ear.” Those which reflect matter are called “atomic mirrors.” They use electromagnetic fields or silicon water to reflect neutral atoms.
- The largest mirror in the world was not man-made – it is the Salar de Uyuni Salt flat in Bolivia, which has an area of more than 4,000 square miles. The largest man-made mirror was made in Germany and is intended to be part of the largest telescope on Earth, in Chile, by 2024. It is 14 feet wide and weighs three and a half tons.
- Scientists have developed a test to find out whether animals recognise themselves in a mirror. In the mirror test, the subject is marked and the scientists observe what they do when seeing themselves in a mirror. Creatures which try to remove the mark are deemed to be able to recognise their reflection. Animals which pass this test include chimpanzees, Orangutans, bonobos, Elephants, bottlenose Dolphins, killer Whales, European Magpies and even some jumping Spiders. Questions are being raised about how effective this test actually is. Gorillas, for example, failed at first, because they would go away to a private space to remove the mark. It’s possible, too, that other animals recognise their reflection but don’t actually care if they have a mark on them. There are other behaviours that might show the same thing – such as freezing or making repetitive movements. Even some human beings fail the standard test. In Kenya and Fiji, for example, six year old children failed it – but this is thought to be because mirrors have different uses in their culture. Other behaviours suggesting self recognition were observed.
- There are numerous uses for mirrors in science. They are found in Telescopes, for example. There is also an array of mirrors on the Moon, left there by Apollo astronauts, which is used to accurately measure the distance of the moon from the Earth, to help study its orbit. It may also be possible to use mirrors to stabilise wormholes. Placing two mirrors a few micrometres apart in a vacuum causes something called the Casimir effect, which could stabilise a wormhole, and allow faster-than-light travel. So far, however, the wormholes are far too small to allow anyone to actually go anywhere (or when).
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Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.
His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.
A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?
Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?
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