Editing Burning glass (section)

==History==
[[File:OrbisPictus b 162.jpg|thumb|1658 illustration depicting the sun's rays being focused to start a fire]]
Burning glass technology has been known since antiquity, as described by Greek and Roman writers who recorded the use of lenses to start fires for various purposes.<ref>{{Cite book |title= Greek and Roman Technology: A Sourcebook of Translated Greek and Roman Texts |last1= Sherwood |first1= Andrew N. |last2= Nikolic |first2= Milorad |last3= Humphrey |first3= John W.|last4= Oleson |first4= John P. |year= 2019 |publisher= [[Routledge]] |page=25 |isbn= 978-1138927896}}</ref> [[Pliny the Elder]] noted the use of glass vases filled with water to concentrate sunlight heat intensely enough to ignite clothing, as well as convex lenses that were used to [[cauterize]] wounds.<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Plantzos |first1= Dimitris |date= 1997 |title= Crystals and Lenses in the Graeco-Roman World |journal= American Journal of Archaeology |volume=101 |issue=3 |pages=451–464 |doi=10.2307/507106|jstor= 507106 |s2cid= 193082510 }}</ref> [[Plutarch]] refers to a burning mirror made of joined triangular metal mirrors installed at the temple of the [[Vestal Virgins]]. [[Aristophanes]] mentions the burning lens in his play ''[[The Clouds]]'' (424 BC).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://classics.mit.edu/Aristophanes/clouds.html |title=The Clouds |author=Aristophanes |website=The Internet Classics Archive |publisher=Daniel C. Stevenson, Web Atomics |access-date=21 February 2018}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|Strepsiades. Have you ever seen a beautiful, transparent stone at the druggists', with which you may kindle fire?}}

The [[Hellenistic Greek]] mathematician [[Archimedes]] was said to have used a burning glass as a weapon in 212 BC, when [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]] was besieged by [[Marcus Claudius Marcellus]] of the [[Roman Republic]]. The [[Roman Navy|Roman fleet]] was supposedly incinerated, though eventually the city was taken and Archimedes was slain.<ref>Meijer, Fik (1986), A History of Seafaring in the Classical World, Routledge, {{ISBN|978-0-7099-3565-0}}</ref>
[[File:Lentilles ardentes Lavoisier.png|360px|thumb|{{center|Lavoisier with French Academy of Sciences' ''lentilles ardentes''}}]]

The legend of Archimedes gave rise to a considerable amount of research on burning glasses and lenses until the late 17th century. Various researchers from medieval [[Christendom]] to the [[Islamic world]] worked with burning glasses, including [[Anthemius of Tralles]] (6th century AD), Proclus (6th century;<ref>{{Cite book|title=The table book: or, Daily recreation and information concerning remarkable men, manners, times, seasons, solemnities, mrry-makings, antiquities and novelties, forming a complete history of the year|last=Hone|first=William|publisher=William Tegg and Co|year=1857|location=London|pages=813}}</ref> who by this means purportedly destroyed the fleet of [[Vitalian (general)|Vitalian]] besieging [[Constantinople]]), [[Ibn Sahl (mathematician)|Ibn Sahl]] in his ''On Burning Mirrors and Lenses'' (10th century), [[Ibn al-Haytham|Alhazen]] in his ''[[Book of Optics]]'' (1021),<ref>Roshdi Rashed (1990), "A Pioneer in Anaclastics: Ibn Sahl on Burning Mirrors and Lenses", ''[[Isis (journal)|Isis]]'' '''81''' (3), pp. 464–491 [464–468].</ref> [[Roger Bacon]] (13th century), [[Giambattista della Porta]] and his friends (16th century), [[Athanasius Kircher]] and [[Gaspar Schott]] (17th century), and the [[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon|Comte de Buffon]] in 1740 in Paris.

While the effects of [[camera obscura]] were mentioned by Greek philosopher [[Aristotle]] in the 4th century BC, contemporary Chinese [[Mohist]]s of China's [[Warring States Period]] who compiled the ''[[Mozi (book)|Mozi]]'' described their experiments with burning mirrors and the [[pinhole camera]].<ref name="needham4 98">{{cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|title=Science and Civilization in China, vol. IV, part 1: Physics and Physical Technology|url=https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf|access-date=5 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703010030/https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf|archive-date=3 July 2017|page=98|url-status=dead}}</ref> A few decades after Alhazen described camera obscura in Iraq, the [[Song dynasty]] Chinese statesman [[Shen Kuo]] was nevertheless the first to clearly describe the relationship of the [[Focus (optics)|focal point]] of a [[concave mirror]], the burning point and the pinhole camera as separate radiation phenomena in his ''[[Dream Pool Essays]]'' (1088).<ref>{{cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|title=Science and Civilization in China, vol. IV, part 1: Physics and Physical Technology|url=https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf|access-date=5 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703010030/https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf|archive-date=3 July 2017|pages=97–99|url-status=dead}}</ref> By the late 15th century [[Leonardo da Vinci]] would be the first in Europe to make similar observations about the focal point and pinhole.<ref>{{cite book|last=Needham|first=Joseph|title=Science and Civilization in China, vol. IV, part 1: Physics and Physical Technology|url=https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf|access-date=5 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703010030/https://monoskop.org/images/7/70/Needham_Joseph_Science_and_Civilisation_in_China_Vol_4-1_Physics_and_Physical_Technology_Physics.pdf|archive-date=3 July 2017|page=99|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Burning lenses were used in the 18th century by both [[Joseph Priestley]] and [[Antoine Lavoisier]] in their experiments to obtain oxides contained in closed vessels under high temperatures. These included carbon dioxide by burning diamond, and [[Mercury(II) oxide|mercuric oxide]] by heating [[Mercury (element)|mercury]]. This type of experiment contributed to the discovery of "[[Phlogiston theory|dephlogisticated air]]" by Priestley, which became better known as oxygen, following Lavoisier's investigations.<ref>Joseph Priestley, ''Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=rk4TaRQTY7cC Vol.2] (1776)</ref>

Chapter 17 of [[William Bates (physician)|William Bates]]' 1920 book ''Perfect Sight Without Glasses'', in which the author argues that observation of the sun is beneficial to those with poor vision, includes a figure of somebody "Focussing the Rays of the Sun Upon the Eye of a Patient by Means of a Burning Glass."<ref name="BatesChap17">{{cite book | last=Bates | first=William H. | title=Perfect Sight Without Glasses | year=1920 | chapter = Chapter 17: Vision Under Adverse Conditions a Benefit to the Eye | pages=183–197 | publisher=New York: Central Fixation Publish Co. | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vl3SiyXmZVMC&pg=PA183 | isbn=88-900756-3-5 }}</ref>

The burning lens of the Grand Duke of Tuscany was used by Sir [[Humphry Davy]] and [[Michael Faraday]] to burn a diamond in oxygen on 27 March 1814.