It’s a ritual we humans perform on a daily basis; it’s so instinctive we almost don’t notice it. But every morning there we are - looking into the Mirror. Sometimes it’s while shaving, or combing our hair or just checking we look presentable for the day ahead. We programme ourselves to do this from an early age once we become self aware and conscious of how we look.
Mirrors have fascinated mankind since prehistoric times,even if it was a simple reflection in a pool of water .The Ancient civilisations of the Mayans, Aztecs, Indians, Chinese, Incas and Egyptians all buried there dead with (in there eyes) magical stone or metal reflectors, to ward off evil spirits or catch the soul . Early round mirrors mimicked the sun due to their similar round shape and a lot of them preyed to there sun gods-so the mirror held a lot of power inside .
Mirrors were even back then used to apply war paint or simple makeup just like today. Mirrors have always been believed to be magical throughout the ages and even back in the Middle Ages people used them to they said see into the future.
Mirrors have always played a part in history-The great Archimedes used mirrors to reflect the sun and set fire to Roman ships at anchor in the harbour during the siege of Syracuse according to ancient legend. People debate whether this ever happened but either way it lead on to how mirrors have shaped our past and future.
Another ancient legend where a mirror of sorts is used is in Greek mythology where the Greek goddess of wisdom ,daughter of Zeus- Athena- gave a young Perseus a magic highly polished reflective/mirrored shield so he could fight Medusa who would turn anyone to stone if they stared directly into her eyes.
The most amazing mirror in modern times being the Hubble space telescope –a mirror Archimedes would be impressed with no doubt.
Construction of the Perkin-Elmer (who were the main contractor) mirror began in 1979, starting with a blank manufactured by Corning from their ultra-low expansion glass. To keep the mirror's weight to an absolute minimum it consisted of inch-thick top and bottom plates sandwiching an intricate honeycomb lattice. Perkin-Elmer simulated zero-g by supporting the mirror on both sides with 138 rods that exerted varying amounts of force. This ensured that the mirror's final shape would be correct and to detailed specification when finally deployed. Mirror polishing continued until May 1981. Perkin-Elmer's managerial structure was brought into question, and the polishing began to slip behind schedule and over budget. To save money, NASA halted work on the back-up mirror and put the launch date of the telescope back to October 1984.The mirror was completed by the end of 1981. Then it was washed using 2,400 gallons of hot, deionised water and after that received a reflective coating of aluminium 65 nm-thick and a protective coating of magnesium fluoride 25 nm-thick.