![]() Published in 1929 or earlier, Freeman's story implies Thompson's explanation is earlier still. ![]() AJim ( talk) 06:49, 20 June 2019 (UTC) A similar explanation is given much earlier in Richard Austin Freeman's story "The Magic Casket", being attributed to Sylvanus Thompson. However, I do not know of a written record to cite. His explanation appeared to satisfy the metalurgists present. When the mirror face was subsequently polished, the strain built into the metal by the chiseling produced the minute distortions of the surface that are needed to create the projection effect. He speculated that this was done on the as-cast metal. He said that on close examination of the back, he could see that the pattern to be projected had been deeply scored into the back with a very thin chisel. At that time he offered a very plausible and satisfactory explanation of the secret. ![]() I just wonder if there is any possibility at all that Gutenberg's magic mirrors and the Chinese mirrors of THIS article could be the same technology. who learned it from someone in ancient China. Only that he learned it from someone who learned it from someone. Is there any way on Earth that Gutenberg could have received the knowledge of the production of these wares via a human chain of transmission that goes back to these ancient Chinese mirrors? I'm not suggesting that Gutenberg learned it from China. There are reasons (not perhaps very strong ones) to think an independent European discovery of this metallurgical-optical trick to be unlikely. I was wondering if anyone might want to pop over to the Wikipedia article on Johannes Gutenberg (URL above) and read what I wrote there (ON THE TALK PAGE, not the ARTICLE PAGE). The Chinese items described in THIS article would, if the symbol on the mirror-back were a Christian one, seem to me to be ideal for such sales, just the right sort of miraculous, mysterious, mystical light-based phenomenon. Johannes Gutenberg and magic mirrors Gutenberg had a plan (that went badly) to sell magic mirrors to religious pilgrims visiting long-dead Charlemagne's base, Aachen. An example of early physics as are the standing water bowls. This may be an example of an early laser produced by coherent light. I think I know how it works, but not well enough to trust myself to draw such a diagram yet.
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