Through the looking glass

Through the Looking Glass

by George Auckland.

Twenty years ago I saw the nearest thing I can describe to pure natural "magic". I was talking to Bill Coates, the senior demonstrator at the Royal Institution in London, and he was holding an object that looked a bit like a small crepe pan. It was a metal disk a few inches in diameter, with a handle. In fact it was a bronze mirror with a surface so highly polished we could see our faces in it. On the back was an oriental picture in low relief. Bill struck an open carbon arc ( he just loved doing that kind of thing) and moved about twelve feet away. He reflected the light from the mirror onto the white wall of the lecture theatre. There in front of me was a large image of the Buddha. Later, when I took a close look at the surface of the mirror, I could find no tell-tale signs of any such image. I've been fascinated by Magic Mirrors ever since that day.

Magic Mirrors come from China and Japan. They became popular in Europe in the early part of the 19th century and many distinguished scientist have attempted to explain the phenomenon. Here are some images from the mirrors in my collection.

Although this is from a modern mirror, this is exactly the sort of image Bill Coates showed me, 20 year ago. Note that this is the image produced by the mirror - there is no image visible at all on the reflecting face of the mirror.

This images corresponds exactly to the relief image on the back of the mirror (see next page).