Warning: Be careful of those magnifying glass lights!

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Capt. Vick

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Jul 23, 2008
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Went to go fill out my wife's mother's day card the other day and I see this!
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Notice the window/skylight and the large magnifying glass light?
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Well I didn't until I saw this!
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There was still a faint smell of burnt paper and plastic!

Could this have been far worse? Maybe? I'm glad I didn't find out!
 
Interesting. But I'm with Andy. Quite impossible with the kind of light.
 
Oops !
I agree, the lamp itself shouldn't be magnified. I once had a similar incident with my old magnifier lamp, but the light source was the sun, shining through the window near the lamp, and focusing, though the lens, onto a sheet of paper. Caught it in time, and then moved the lamp to a different place on the desk.
I also noticed an overhead light sometimes "caught" the lens, but the worst that happened with this was a very light singe mark on paper, although it's wise to be cautious !
 
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Note window/skylight in background. It was night time when this picture was taken. Also the magnifying glass is not in the original position. It should be a bit further back towards the wall/window.
 
Damn that was too close, I consider that wild as we have the modern form of those at work. I bet we have probably 150 to 200 or more in the building but use LED lights. I guess its a good thing we don't have windows at work.

Glad it didn't get worse.
 
Guys...Im a professional fire fighter and can assure you that I've seen this sort of thing happen. Worse ive seen is a decretive lantern on a porch light siding on fire and burn a newer home down. There is a reason these things come with covers...and its not just for dust.
 
Holy chit, man - that was a close call!

Yeah, glass can be a source of "interesting situations".
I had a 1920's Standard Oil bottle sitting on a windowsill in the shop with no issues, until the Autumn sun came in at an angle and the refracted light started singing the blueprint/schematics on the shelf by the window.

Took a while to figure out what was going on, but it turns out that the art-deco design of the oil bottle was magnifying the sunlight as it passed from morning to afternoon.

Dodged a bullet that time, for sure.
 

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