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PIC ADDED- If you have a magnifying make-up mirror in your house...they are dangerous!

I've never heard any consumer warnings about these things..

My wife keeps one on her desk in front of a window, uses it for applying makeup, plucking eyebrows, etc.

Yesterday, we both walk into our bedroom together and she says, "Greg, are you burning incense?"

The room was slightly smoky and smelled pleasantly of pine.

I said, "No."

She replied, "Then what is burning?"

I did a quick scan of the room and saw a bright light and a red glow on her desk. My mind fooled me for a second, I thought I was seeing a
brass incense burner and a glowing incense stick.

I quickly realized the very bright "brass" looking object was pure concentrated sunlight. The sun had gotten to just the right spot in the sky to focus a beam of radiation on the window frame (much like you can focus a beam of light with a magnifying glass) and it was glowing cherry red and smoking away!

I threw some water on it and now have a big black charred spot on my window frame!

Would it eventually have flamed and started the curtains afire? I think so.

The smoke detector would have gone off shortly, i am sure. But what if no one was home??

image
The death ray vaporized the wood to about 3/16" deep...not sure how deep the charring goes in!
"Wars are really ugly! They're dirty
and they're cold.
I don't want nobody to shoot me in the foxhole."
Mary






Best Franklin Website

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    19Lyds19Lyds Posts: 26,524 ✭✭✭✭
    Wow! I'll bet your glad you walked in when you did!

    I decided to change calling the bathroom the John and renamed it the Jim. I feel so much better saying I went to the Jim this morning.



    The name is LEE!
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    TennesseeDaveTennesseeDave Posts: 4,917 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I recently saw a news bullitin about some crystal sculptures that were sold at one of the department stores.That they were warning people that they were causing fires if placed in certain spots where the sun hit them just right.I'm very glad for you that you caught it fast enough.
    Trade $'s
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    lcoopielcoopie Posts: 8,875 ✭✭✭✭✭
    this reminds me of
    Raider of the Lost Arc
    where the light only shines in the correct orientation once per year
    at the right time
    and only with the right magnifying crystal perfectly alligned.

    LCoopie = Les
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    RGTRGT Posts: 508 ✭✭
    Several years ago my wife tossed one of those in the back seat of the car. It took us a while to figure out where those burned streaks in the roof fabric had come from. image
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    BoomBoom Posts: 10,165 ✭
    Man, that's potent Greg!

    Imagine someone's home burning down over a quirk such as this!image
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    holeinone1972holeinone1972 Posts: 5,368 ✭✭✭


    << <i>this reminds me of
    Raider of the Lost Arc
    where the light only shines in the correct orientation once per year
    at the right time
    and only with the right magnifying crystal perfectly alligned. >>



    Once per day, not once per year. get it right. LOL

    image
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    They also make you look fat. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
    "If I had a nickel for every nickel I ever had, I'd have all my nickels back".
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    LALASD4LALASD4 Posts: 3,602 ✭✭✭
    I was watching " Survivor Man " with my sons this weekend, and we found that there are all kinds of ways to make fire.image
    Coin Collector, Chicken Owner, Licensed Tax Preparer & Insurance Broker/Agent.
    San Diego, CA


    image
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    IGWTIGWT Posts: 4,975 ✭
    I once looked into one of those mirrors. I didn't like what I saw.
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    cladkingcladking Posts: 30,333 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Beware of GE incandescent bulbs too.

    These often throw a spark when they burn out.

    You used to be safe buying anything that was underwritten by UL but this endorsement appears to be almost meaningless any more.
    tempus fugit extra philosophiam.
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    BoomBoom Posts: 10,165 ✭
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    notwilightnotwilight Posts: 12,864 ✭✭✭


    << <i>

    << <i>this reminds me of
    Raider of the Lost Arc
    where the light only shines in the correct orientation once per year
    at the right time
    and only with the right magnifying crystal perfectly alligned. >>



    Once per day, not once per year. get it right. LOL >>



    The sun moves around in the sky. In the movie, it was once/year.

    I've never owned one of these but I've seen them in many feminine bathrooms I've visited over the years. Seems like the key is to keep them away from the sun. The bathroom environments that I've observed them in is probably safe. --Jerry
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    mgoodm3mgoodm3 Posts: 17,497 ✭✭✭
    With a mirror such as that you need to be unlecky enough to have a combustible object exactly at the mirror's focal length. Probably doens't happen too often, thankfully. And then in your case, the movement of the sun would probably help keep it from starting a fire and just smolder.
    coinimaging.com/my photography articles Check out the new macro lens testing section
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    IGWTIGWT Posts: 4,975 ✭
    -- the movement of the sun --

    I hope that your medical knowledge is post-Copernican. image
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    mgoodm3mgoodm3 Posts: 17,497 ✭✭✭
    The sun clearly rotates around the earth. Not sure how the ether fits into everything though.
    coinimaging.com/my photography articles Check out the new macro lens testing section
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    LALASD4LALASD4 Posts: 3,602 ✭✭✭


    << <i>-- the movement of the sun --

    I hope that your medical knowledge is post-Copernican. image >>



    It could be the orbital movement of the sun around the "Milky Way".image
    Coin Collector, Chicken Owner, Licensed Tax Preparer & Insurance Broker/Agent.
    San Diego, CA


    image
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    notwilightnotwilight Posts: 12,864 ✭✭✭


    << <i>-- the movement of the sun --

    I hope that your medical knowledge is post-Copernican. image >>



    You haven't mastered the concept of frame of reference, eh? In the bedroom frame of reference, the sun moves around in the the spherical projection we think of as the sky. Astronomers want to know where an object is in the sky, now where the earth is relative to the object. --Jerry
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    IGWTIGWT Posts: 4,975 ✭
    You clearly haven't mastered the concept of a joke, eh?
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    pennyanniepennyannie Posts: 3,929 ✭✭✭
    I may try this, i am insured to the hilt. All those clothes in the closet could become coin money....
    Mark
    NGC registry V-Nickel proof #6!!!!
    working on proof shield nickels # 8 with a bullet!!!!

    RIP "BEAR"
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    image

    Any thread can turn into any direction at any time here. This place is great.
    imageQuid pro quo. Yes or no?
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    evsiteevsite Posts: 141 ✭✭
    I have this same problem with my eyeglasses image
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    saintgurusaintguru Posts: 7,728 ✭✭✭
    It's refreshing to see that some of our members use make-up when looking at their coins!image
    image
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    ElcontadorElcontador Posts: 7,743 ✭✭✭✭✭
    That thing reminds me of magnifying glasses we would use outdoors as kids. We could get them to reflect the sunlight and see how hot we could get a nearby object. I am not surprised that mirror is a potential fire hazard.
    "Vou invadir o Nordeste,
    "Seu cabra da peste,
    "Sou Mangueira......."
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    ClosedLoopClosedLoop Posts: 1,077 ✭✭✭
    glad to hear everything is OK, now go play the LOTTO!image
    figglehorn
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    66Tbird66Tbird Posts: 2,858 ✭✭✭
    Glad you spotted that, would of ruined your day at a minimum. I got an expensive remote with a perfectly melted arc across the top. A small fish bowl did the trick there. When I showed it to and old timer friend he chuckled a little and relayed a story about starting fires at the edge of the German army camps when he was young(10-11, in Holland). He was told to toss bottles in the spares grass on his way while passing the camp. He said more that one major fire was a result until they cleared the vegetation to combat it.
    Need something designed and 3D printed?
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    Try explaining that to the insurance company!!

    No!! Really!! see, the mirror focused a death ray laser beam that set the carpet on fire!!!

    I had a SERIOUS fire at my house in Detroit about eight years ago, the insurance investigator and the Arson Squad couldn't come up with a cause.

    Care to guess where they set their sights on as the "Cause" of the fire?

    Be suspected of arson is not a cool thing,

    ask me how I know
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    Yikes! Good thing you caught it in time.

    << <i>image

    Any thread can turn into any direction at any time here. This place is great. >>

    That's why I like it here. image
    aka Dan
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    stev32kstev32k Posts: 2,098 ✭✭✭
    When I was a kid I could start fires with my eye glasses. Just take them off and focus a beam of sunlight on some dry leaves and it would not take long for them to smolder and catch fire. I tried to tell the other kids I could set them on fire just by looking at them - one or two actually believed me and were scared every time I looked at them.
    Who is General Failure, and why is he reading my hard drive?
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    Pic added to first post.
    "Wars are really ugly! They're dirty
    and they're cold.
    I don't want nobody to shoot me in the foxhole."
    Mary






    Best Franklin Website
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    PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 47,781 ✭✭✭✭✭
    If a coin was laying there and changed color from the extreme heat, would the coin be considered AT or NT?image

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

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    lkeigwinlkeigwin Posts: 16,895 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Happened to us too. Burned a desk. My wife now puts a slip cover of sorts over the make-up mirror.
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    RWBRWB Posts: 8,082 ✭
    Here is a published story in the New York Times from May 2, 1948 along similar lines:

    Franklin Half Dollars Prove to be “Hot Money”

    “Officials of the Franklin Society for Home Building and savings discovered yesterday that the new Benjamin Franklin half dollars, issued Friday by the united States Mint, can become “too hot to handle.” A combination of the sun’s rays and a strong magnifying lens set fire early yesterday to a display board in front of the society’s offices at 217 Broadway, on which several of the new coins were mounted.

    The lens had been placed in front of the display to magnify the coins for the benefit of passers-by. But the lens soon caught and concentrated the sun’s rays on the display and before long the window front of the society’s offices was aflame. The Fire Department extinguished the blaze before any serious damage was done.”

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