Mirror ball
A mirror ball (also known as a disco ball or disco ball ) is a foam plastic ball that is found in almost every discotheque and is covered with (glued) small mirrors . The lighting effect of numerous small, slowly moving points of light, which are reminiscent of a starry sky, results from the reflection of spotlight on the rotating sphere.
Mirror balls consist of a plastic ball to which small glass or metal mirrors are glued on the outside. They are usually mounted hanging out of the reach of discotheque visitors. An electric motor turns the ball slowly, at about one to three revolutions per minute.
Mirror balls are rarely used as part of other light installations.
Mirror balls were already installed in dance palaces in Berlin in the 1920s. Attentive observers can already see them in films such as Berlin: The Symphony of the Big City (1927), The Blue Angel (1929/30), Water for Canitoga (1939; in a Wild West saloon in 1905), in Casablanca (1942) and in Discover Great Freedom No. 7 (1943).
literature
- Tobias Pehle: Light effects for parties in the house and garden. Falken, Niedernhausen 1997, ISBN 3-8068-1798-7 .
- Michael Ebner: lighting technology for stage and disco; A handbook for do-it-yourselfers. 6th edition, Elektor-Verlag, Aachen, 1992, ISBN 3-928051-12-1
