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Magic Mirrors (China; Japan)

When specimens of these magic mirrors made their way to Europe, no one - not even the scientists - could figure out how they produced their reflected images.
For many centuries, the "magic" of these mirrors baffled both lay people and scientists, who devoted themselves to do different research work on this subject.

The first magic mirror to appear in Western Europe was owned by the director of the Paris Observatory, who, on his return from China, brought several mirrors and one of them was magical. The latter was presented as an irresistible unknown object to the French Academy of Sciences in 1844. No one had seen anything like it, and no matter how much they studied its behavior, they could never fully understand it. In total, just four magic mirrors brought from China to Europe, but in 1878 two engineering professors presented to the Royal Society of London several models they had brought from Japan. The English called the artefacts "open mirrors" and for the first time made technical observations regarding their construction. The mirrors effects were so wonderful that the Royal Society was mesmerized by them. No one, however, could figure out what produced the spooky and beautiful projection of light which they categorized as an "impossible optical illusion" and therefore "magical".

Later, in November 2005, the physicist Michael Berry, made a project on this topic and published an article describing the optics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_magic_mirror
 
The October 1988 issue of UNESCO's The Courier included the magic mirrors among its examples of ancient Chinese genius.

MagicMirror-UNESCO-1.jpg


Magicmirror-UNESCO-2.jpg

SOURCE: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000081680/PDF/081712engo.pdf.multi.nameddest=81680
 
This 2005 research report details the optics that make these mirrors "magic" ... The full article (PDF format) can be accessed at the link below.

Oriental magic mirrors and the Laplacian image
M V Berry
European Journal of Physics, Volume 27, Number 1, p. 109
doi:10.1088/0143-0807/27/1/012

FULL REPORT: https://michaelberryphysics.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/berry383.pdf
 
The Cincinnati Art Museum just discovered a magic mirror among its Asian art holdings.
'Magic mirror': Hidden image revealed in reflection of centuries-old artifact

Amid the thousands of treasures in the Cincinnati Art Museum's East Asian art collection, a small bronze mirror dating back to the 15th or 16th century always seemed rather unremarkable.

Last exhibited in 2017, it had spent much of the preceding decades in storage ...

While researching so-called "magic mirrors" -- rare ancient mirrors that, in certain light, reveal images or patterns hidden on their reflective surfaces -- the museum's curator of East Asian art, Hou-mei Sung, saw something resembling the examples from Edo-period Japan. ...

So, last spring, she visited the museum's storage rooms accompanied by a conservation expert.

"I asked her to shine a strong, focused light on the mirror," Sung said on a video call from Cincinnati. "So, she used her cell phone (flashlight) and it worked."

On the wall before them was the appearance of texture in the reflected light -- not a distinct image, but enough to warrant further investigation. Following experiments using more powerful and focused lights, the mirror eventually revealed the image of a Buddha, rays of light emanating from his seated form. The inscription on the mirror's back spells out who was depicted: Amitabha, an important figure in various schools of East Asian Buddhism. ...

MagicMirror-CinciMusArt.jpg

FULL STORY: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/magic-mirror-cincinnati-art-museum-scn/index.html
 
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