this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2025
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As I recall, the "Vampires have no reflection" stemmed from mirrors of the time usually being polished silver. So, I guess the vampire can do this if they're okay with having silver pressed up against their face.
How does that guy with smoke coming out of his eye patch always know when I'm sneaking up on him?? At night. While he's screaming.
Clearly, because he's part bat, the screaming is a kind of echolocation.
Tbf the silver is behind the layer of glass
Pretty sure they just poured silver nitrate over glass. You can still buy kits to do that to re-silver old mirrors for the original look. From what I can find, the layered ones were older, and they used tin and mercury which made breaking a mirror a rather unlucky event.
I'm sure there are varying methods, but typically you silver the back of glass to make a mirror
I think you are right. I keep finding different ways they did it, so sounds like the 1800s was a busy period in the development of mirror technology!
Huh, so 7 years bad luck was actually just heavy metal poisoning? Fascinating...
I always heard it was about not having a soul.
Can confirm. I'm not a vampire but I sold my soul for a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos back im 6th grade. Since then I haven't seen my reflection or been able to use an automatic door.
Good myths have multiple ramifications
You can easily solve this with a little padding around the edges.
Mirrors now are chemically deposited silver to my knowledge.
Deposited on the back of the glass, then a protective layer applied on top. The amount of silver in that assembly is very low, and none is exposed, but the reflective component is the silver.
Most use aluminium nowadays afaik.
I'm not certain, can't find any reliable info on this.
Shops don't seem to specify the reflective material. In addition, aluminium is commonly used to describe the frame, and silver as a color for the frame or other parts, making it hard to get any info on the sales side.
On the production-tech side, I see some pages talk only about silver, others mention both silver and aluminium. Silver commonly has a description of the chemical process at times (silver nitrate silvering), haven't seen one for aluminium yet.
Price wise, metal should be fully opaque around 10nm. Assuming a generous 100nm thickness, that makes 0.1€/m² worth of silver. I doubt material cost is a factor.
Performance wise, silver seems better than aluminium in its reflectance. Honestly I don't get why anyone would be making aluminium mirrors.
Does anyone have more info on this?
This is the most thorough answer I managed to find so far. They do mention silver being more valuable, but seems like the application process might be more expensive also.
The only source I could find on commonality is this paywalled market report claiming "The market is segmented by application (home and commercial) and type (aluminized and silvered glass mirrors), with silvered glass mirrors currently holding a larger market share due to their superior reflectivity and clarity." Not sure whether greater market share necessarily means more individual mirrors produced though. But sounds like silver still reigns supreme despite higher costs, though not sure by how much.