Oriental magic mirrors and the Laplacian image ”

We make some remarks on Berry's paper [Eur. Berry just presented a comprehensive explanation of the physical part for the optics of the magic mirror [1]. The story related to this strange metal mirror could be traced in [2-4]. The characteristic is : the raised images appeared in a screen are on the opposite side of an opaque mirror but not the reflecting face [5-6]! This amazing optical effect for many centuries made a tremendous impression on observers, from which such mirrors became known as magical. Master craftsmen passed down the secret of their fabrication from generation to generation. The ancients were unable to give the phenomenon a convincing explanation, but it was reflected in the old saying " the truth always comes out in the sun. " [5-6]. In fact, archeological finds contain extremely scanty information on the magic mirrors of China. One of the first such mirrors was discovered during excavations of the tomb of the exalted grandee Yu in the province of Uhan in the south of China and has been dated to approximately 500 B.C. These years belong to the Han period of history, when, in the fabrication of mirrors, special significance was attached to the purity of the metal. The necessity for such careful fabrication of the mirrors was caused by ritual-magical purposes; these were often reflected in inscriptions and images on the mirrors, which were supposed to keep evil forces away from their owners (cf. Fig. 2 in [6])!. Faith in the power and magical properties of these symbols in Han China was very widespread. Other legend is : the reverse side of the mirrors bore raised images and inscriptions of lyrical, symbolic, and edifying content: " a wise man uses his mind like a mirror " [6]. In China, attempts were made from ancient times to explain the production of the remarkable optical effect created by magic mirrors. The first version that has come down to us apparently belongs to the scholar Kua Shen (1031-1095)! [4]. He explained this phenomenon by saying that, in casting, the thinner part cools faster than the thick part, and this causes the formation of small deformations of the profile, not observable by the naked eye. At the same time, he pointed out that very thin mirrors did not manifest this property, and gave credit to the high skill of the ancients. At the end of the thirteenth …