Ye Magick Mirrour of Old JapanThompson, Silvanus P. (Silvanus Phillips)
History
Ye Magick Mirrour of Old Japan
Thompson, Silvanus P. (Silvanus Phillips)
Magic mirrors -- Japan
Plate VI. depicts a rectangular mirror, 15 inches high by 10-1/2 inches
wide, and weighing 5-1/2 lbs. It is the only one of this form that he
has seen or heard of; though smaller square mirrors of 3 to 4 inches in
the side are not infrequent. One of the latter, in his possession, an
old mirror covered at the back with Chinese characters, has no magic
qualities at all. The large rectangular mirror is slightly convex, but
more so in its longer direction than in its breadth. The bamboos in the
pattern, though not very highly raised, are in very sharp relief,
the mirror being, apparently, an _ichi mai buki_, or artist’s proof.
There are two raised lumps on the back, apparently the remains of the
parts where the metal was poured into the mould; and, curiously enough,
neither these nor the rims of the rocks in the foreground yield any
image, though they are more highly raised than any part of the bamboos.
[Illustration: PLATE V.]
To complete the proofs that the effects are due to differences of
curvature the author has made the following observations.
By holding a magic mirror very obliquely to the light one can discern
traces of the pattern in the face, especially if one is accustomed
to examine optical surfaces for small inequalities of curvature. For
example, on examining (at oblique reflection) in such a mirror the
image of a horizontal window-bar or of the roof-line of a house, one
sees the straight line slightly curved downwards out of the level
wherever the image is made from a slightly concave (or less convex)
part of the surface. Acting on this hint the author found that if one
chooses as an object to be viewed in a mirror a pattern of narrow
parallel straight lines, such as a finely-striped blind, the pattern
on the back of the mirror can be dimly seen in the face, resembling
that species of line-engraving, sometimes used for medallion portraits,
in which the whole picture is crossed by lines from side to side, the
lines being bent toward one another or widened out to give effects of
light and shade. Another variety of the same experiment is to place a
ruled diffraction-grating of 100 lines to the inch (ruled in a silvered
surface on glass) close to a bright light, and with a short-focus lens
project the lines upon a screen. Then interpose the magic mirror to
throw the luminous lines upon another screen, when they will be seen
with the usual magic image; the bright lines concentrating into the
bright parts and avoiding the darker parts of the luminous pattern.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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