Manufacturers did not immediately figure out how to equip cars with rear-view mirrors. Today, these devices are found not only on cars and buses, but also on motorcycles and even some bicycles. They significantly improve the driving safety of these vehicles.
The history of the rearview mirror began in 1904, when the American race car driver Ray Harraun saw such a mirror on a horse cart. The name of the witty cabman who came up with this idea has not been preserved in history. Yes, and Harraun himself was not up to her - at that time the second race in his life took place. The baton was passed on to writers: in 1906, the writer (and racer) Dorothy Levitt expressed in her book "Woman and the Car" the opinion that "a woman should keep a mirror with her while driving" in order to "sometimes get it out and see what is happening behind machine. " He listened to her, however, the man - already mentioned above Ray Harraun, who at the next race, held in 1911, did just that. Only he did not hold the mirror in his hand, as the writer advised, but fixed it motionlessly on the car.
Rear-view mirrors were installed on serial cars only in 1914. The innovation turned out to be very convenient. It allowed you to make sure when cornering and changing lanes that a car moving in a parallel lane would not crash into the side of your car. And before stopping or reducing speed, it allows you to determine the presence of vehicles moving behind.
In a modern car, there are usually three rear-view mirrors. Two of them are located outside on the sides of the driver, and the third is in the cabin above the middle of the windshield. The right mirror (in right-hand drive cars - the left) is often convex. This is required to obtain a fisheye effect, which greatly increases the viewing angle. The disadvantage of this solution is the distortion of the size of objects and the distance to them, but the driver quickly gets used to this. And on the device itself there is often a corresponding warning inscription.
The middle mirror is often also made convex, but only along the horizontal coordinate. Thus, it is shaped like a fragment of a cylinder, not a sphere. Sometimes additional functions are assigned to this device: a clock, a radar detector or a parking radar indicator are built into it.
Outside mirrors may fog up in cold weather. In some of them, low-power electric heaters are installed to prevent this. On the reverse side, their hulls are often streamlined to improve aerodynamic performance. Also, turn signal repeaters can be built into them, which further increases traffic safety.
But remember: even the best rearview mirror is useless if it is incorrectly set up or if the driver neglects to use it.
