Homemade lens

To start, I want to invite you to watch a video of our future crafts:

In my childhood, probably many were played with lenses. With their help, it was possible to light a fire by directing a stream of light from the sun through a lens to a flammable surface. It was fun. In general, a lens is needed in order to enlarge objects.

For this homemade we will need plastic bottle, water, plasticine or window putty.

If you collect water in a bottle, then it will already act as a magnifying glass, but this is rather inconvenient, so we’ll make a lens.

First you need to cut out two identical circles from a plastic bottle:

Now you need to take a small piece of plasticine, chewing gum or window putty and fill these two circles from the bottle, leave a small gap (plasticine must first be rolled into a sausage).

Next we do this device: take a straw (a tube from under the cocktails), cut it into two parts and fasten it as shown in the photo:

Carefully lower one end of the straw into the slot in the lens, and the other will serve us in the air vent. That is, in this way we can draw water into the inside of our lens. Just remember that the lens connections must be airtight:

Now we lower the lens into the water and collect the liquid inside:

After that, carefully remove our structure (straw) and “cover” the gap (everything should be airtight).

That's all! The lens is ready. Now for convenience you can attach the pen, or you can leave everything as it is. Now you can increase objects and make fire with your own made lens!