A burning glass or burning lens is a large convex lens that can concentrate the sun's rays onto a small area, heating up the area and thus resulting in ignition of the exposed surface. Burning mirrors achieve a similar effect by using reflecting surfaces to focus the light. They were used in 18th-century chemical studies for burning materials in closed glass vessels where the products of combustion could be trapped for analysis. The burning glass was a useful contrivance in the days before electrical ignition was easily achieved.
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Famous quotes containing the words burning and/or glass:
“Being innocent, he dreaded that he died
Hating his God, but what he was was plain:
An old kind man brave in his burning pride.”
—Dylan Thomas (1914–1953)
“Or your liquors seep to me, in this glass capsule,
Dulling and stilling.
But colourless. Colourless.”
—Sylvia Plath (1932–1963)