How are mirrors made?

Question

What do they consist of & how do they come to be?

I know they are a reflective surface but how are they made, what do they consist of, what is the process...?

Answer 1

When most people use the term "mirror," they are referring to what is known as a plane mirror. A plane mirror takes the light that hits it and reflects it back. Mirrors used for common consumer purposes are of this sort.

A mirror is essentially a highly reflective surface. The sorts of mirrors one sees on walls or in bathrooms are of a type known as back-silvered mirrors. This means that the reflective surface--in most modern mirrors this is aluminum--is viewed through a thin layer of glass. The glass protects the aluminum from scratching and bubbling, but also distorts the image somewhat.

Early mirrors were created by simply polishing a suitable substance until it became highly reflective. Neolithic mirrors have been discovered, made by grinding down obsidian rocks and polishing them to an incredible sheen. These mirrors have remarkable properties, allowing even subtle details to be clearly seen in their reflections.

To make a Neolithic mirror, one need first find the right stone--ideally, obsidian. A rougher stone is used to grind the base stone down to a flat surface on one side. After a flat surface is achieved, a finer grinding stone and clay slip can be used to polish the stone to a fully reflective sheen. Extremely fine abrasives, such as ash, can help further. After a substantial amount of time and effort, one will have created a very primitive form of mirror.

Modern mirrors, however, are made using an entirely different process. By taking liquid metals and allowing them to condense on a sheet of glass, one can get a surface far more reflective than anything achieved by polish. Making a mirror can be done at home with only a few supplies easily acquired at a local chemistry shop.

With pure silver nitrate, distilled water, and ammonia, one can make a mirror virtually indistinguishable from those purchased at a store. The process (in abbreviated form) involves dissolving a small amount of silver nitrate in distilled water, then adding diluted ammonia until the mixture goes through distinct chemical changes. A second mixture is made using silver nitrate and Rochelle salts. This mixture must be boiled and filtered. By pouring these mixtures on to a very clean piece of glass sufficiently heated to the proper temperature, the silver will precipitate and form an even coating on the glass. After drying, one can coat the back of the silver with a solid paint to help prevent degradation of the silver. The result is a fully functional mirror.

Commercial mirrors are manufactured in more or less the same manner as is described above, though materials such as aluminum might be used instead of silver. Mirrors produced for specialized purposes, such as lasers or telescopes, are manufactured using much more exacting techniques to acquire a much more precise mirror, but the general principles remain the same.

Answer 2

The preceding description of preparing a silver mirror surface is correct. More common nowadays is to use aluminum; the mirror blank is placed in a vacuum chamber, and aluminum is evaporated onto it.
Any sufficiently rigid substance can be used for a mirror blank; glass and plastic are the most common.

Answer 3

In the old times they were made by shiny metals!
Now, they put some reflective surface and glass over it! The glass redirects light, ...

Answer 4

Mirrors are manufactured by applying a reflective coating to a suitable substrate. The most common such substrate is glass, due to its ease of fabrication, its rigidity, and its ability to take a smooth finish. The reflective coating ("silver") is typically applied to the back surface of the glass, so that it is protected from corrosion and accidental damage. (Glass is much more scratch-resistant than most substrates.) Historically, mirrors in the classical antiquity were made of solid metal (bronze, later silver) and they were too expensive for widespread use as well as being prone to corrosion. Due to polished metal's low emissivity, antique mirrors also gave a darker picture compared to modern ones, making them unsuitable for indoor use with artificial lighting (candles or lanterns at the time). The method of making mirrors out of ordinary glass was discovered by 16th-century Venetian glassmakers on the island of Murano, who covered the backside of plate glass with mercury, obtaining near-perfect reflection and imaging qualities. For over one hundred years Venetian mirrors installed in richly decorated frames served as luxury decoration for palaces throughout Europe, but the secret of mercury process eventually arrived to London and Paris during the 17th century, due to industrial espionage. French workshops succeeded in large scale industrialization of the process, eventually making mirrors affordable to the masses, although mercury's toxicity remained a problem. In modern times the mirror substrate is shaped, polished and cleaned, and is then coated. Glass mirrors are most often coated with non-toxic silver or aluminium, implemented by a series of coatings: tin silver chemical activator copper paint The tin is applied because silver will not bond with the glass. The activator causes the tin/silver to harden. Copper is added for long-term durability.[13] The paint protects the coating on the back of the mirror from scratches and other accidental damage. In some applications, generally those that are cost-sensitive or that require great durability, mirrors are instead made from a single, bulk material such as polished metal. For technical applications such as laser mirrors, the reflective coating is typically applied by vacuum deposition on the front surface of the substrate. This eliminates double reflections and reduces absorption of light in the mirror. Cheaper technical mirrors use a silver, aluminium, or gold coating (the latter typically for infrared mirrors), and achieve reflectivities of 90–95% when new. A protective overcoat may be applied to prevent oxidation of the reflective layer. Applications requiring higher reflectivity or greater durability use dielectric coatings, which can achieve reflectivities as high as 99.999% over a narrow range of wavelengths.

Answer 5

Originally, SIlver attached to the back of glass. Currently, I believe it's Aluminum.

Answer 6

sand is laid out than at extreme heats it is transformed to glass

like sea glass is a place in the sand were lightning has hit and as lightning is hotter than the sun it is turned to glass

Answer 7

You've heard the expression, SMOKE AND MIRRORS? Well, smoke is congealed out of thin air and formed into mirrors.

Answer 8

Out of water. Have you ever seen a reflection in a lake? well, they figured out how to take lake water, and solidify it, so it can be p[laced in a frame, so you can see your vanity reflected.

Once again, just joking, "Dear"

Answer 9

its came from sand.
sand are `cook` until its turned to liquid form

Answer 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror