A magnifying glass (called a hand lens in laboratory contexts) is a convex lens that is used to produce a magnified image of an object. The lens is usually mounted in a frame with a handle (see image).
A sheet magnifier consists of many very narrow concentric ring-shaped lenses, such that the combination acts as a single lens but is much thinner. This arrangement is known as a Fresnel lens.
The magnifying glass is an icon of detective fiction, particularly that of Sherlock Holmes.
Read more about Magnifying Glass: History, Magnification, Alternatives
Famous quotes containing the words magnifying and/or glass:
“Whilst we want cities as the centres where the best things are found, cities degrade us by magnifying trifles.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“My glass shall not persuade me I am old
So long as youth and thou are of one date,
But when in thee time’s furrows I behold,
Then look I death my days should expiate.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)