A mirror is an object with a smooth surface and the ability to reflect light. At first, the ancients used polished bronze as a mirror. There are two types of flat mirrors and curved mirrors. Flat mirrors are often used by people to organize their appearance, and curved mirrors are divided into concave mirrors and convex mirrors. Mainly used as dressing mirror, furniture accessories, architectural decoration parts, optical instrument parts. As well as solar cookers, reflectors for headlights and searchlights, reflector telescopes, car rearview mirrors, and more.
In science, mirrors are also often used in telescopes, lasers, industrial equipment and other instruments. Surface-polished metal parts with regular reflection properties and glass or metal products coated with metal reflective films. Often inlaid with metal, plastic or wooden borders. In ancient times, obsidian, gold, silver, crystal, copper, and bronze were ground and polished to make mirrors; in 3000 BC, there were bronze mirrors used for makeup in Egypt.
In the 1st century AD, large mirrors that can illuminate the whole body began to exist. Small portable mirrors in ivory or precious metal lockets along with the comb were popular in the Middle Ages. From the end of the 12th century to the beginning of the 13th century, glass with silver or iron as the back appeared. During the Renaissance, Venice was the center of mirror-making, and the mirrors produced were renowned for their high quality. In the 16th century, the cylinder method was invented to manufacture plate glass, and at the same time, the tin amalgam method of attaching tin foil to glass with mercury was invented, and the number of metal mirrors gradually decreased. In the second half of the 17th century, French inventors made flat glass by casting method and produced high-quality large glass mirrors. Mirrors and their borders are increasingly becoming interior decorations. At the end of the 18th century, large full-length mirrors were made and used on furniture. Although the tin amalgam method was harmful to the human body, it continued to be used until the 19th century. In 1835, the German chemist J.von Lebig invented the electroless silver plating method, which made the application of glass mirrors more popular.
In ancient China, water reflected shadows, and bronze wares called water were used as a reference. During the Han and Wei Dynasties, bronze mirrors gradually became popular, and there were full-length mirrors. Originally, bronze mirrors were thin, round with flanges, decorated with patterns or inscriptions on the back, and a semi-circular button in the center of the back, which was used to place the mirror, without a handle, forming a unique style of Chinese mirrors. In the Ming Dynasty, glass mirrors were introduced, and rear glass mirrors gradually became popular. Japan and Korea first introduced bronze mirrors from China. Glass mirrors became popular in Japan during the Meiji Restoration. 
