Editing Magnifying glass (section)

==History==
[[File:Magnification power of a loupe.png|thumb|Diagram of a single lens magnifying glass]]

"The evidence indicates that the use of lenses was widespread throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean basin over several millennia".<ref>{{cite journal|journal=American Journal of Archaeology|title=Lenses in Antiquity|first1=George|last1=Sines|first2=Yannis A.|last2=Sakellarakis|doi=10.2307/505216|volume=91|issue=2|date=Apr 1987|pages=191–6|jstor=505216|s2cid=191384703 }}</ref> Archaeological findings from the 1980s in Crete's Idaean Cave unearthed rock crystal lenses dating back to the [[Archaic Greece|Archaic Greek period]], showcasing exceptional optical quality. These discoveries suggest that the use of lenses for magnification and possibly for starting fires was widespread in the Mediterranean and Middle East, indicating an advanced understanding of optics in [[Classical antiquity|antiquity]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sines |first=George |last2=Sakellarakis |first2=Yannis A. |date=1987 |title=Lenses in Antiquity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/505216 |journal=American Journal of Archaeology |volume=91 |issue=2 |pages=191–196 |doi=10.2307/505216 |issn=0002-9114|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The earliest explicit written evidence of a magnifying device is a joke in [[Aristophanes]]'s ''[[The Clouds]]''<ref>Aristophanes, The Clouds, 765–70.</ref>  from 424 BC, where magnifying lenses to ignite tinder were sold in a pharmacy, and [[Pliny the Elder]]'s "lens",<ref>Pliny the Elder, [[Natural History (Pliny)|Natural History]], 36.67, 37.10.</ref> a glass globe filled with water, used to cauterize wounds. ([[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] wrote that it could be used to read letters "no matter how small or dim".<ref>Seneca, [[Naturales quaestiones|Natural Questions]], 1.6.5–7.</ref><ref>''The history of the telescope'' by Henry C. King, Harold Spencer Jones Publisher Courier Dover Publications, 2003 Pg 25 {{ISBN|0-486-43265-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-486-43265-6}}</ref>) 

A convex lens used for forming a magnified image was described in the ''[[Book of Optics]]'' by [[Ibn al-Haytham]] in 1021.<ref name="Kriss">{{Cite journal|last1=Kriss|first1=Timothy C.|last2=Kriss|first2=Vesna Martich|title=History of the Operating Microscope: From Magnifying Glass to Micro neurosurgery |journal=Neurosurgery|volume=42|issue=4|pages=899–907|date=April 1998|doi=10.1097/00006123-199804000-00116|pmid=9574655}}</ref>{{Verify source|date=November 2018}} After the book was translated during the [[Latin translations of the 12th century]], [[Roger Bacon]] described the properties of a magnifying glass in 13th-century [[England]]. This was followed by the development of [[eyeglasses]] in 13th-century [[Italy]].<ref name="Kriss"/> In the late 1500s, two Dutch spectacle makers [[Jacob Metius]] and [[Zacharias Janssen]] crafted the [[compound microscope]] by assembling several magnifying lenses in a tube. [[Hans Lipperhey]] introduced the [[telescope]] in 1608 and [[Galileo Galilei]] improved on the device in 1609.<ref name=":0">Amsel-Arieli, M. (2014). Magnifying Glass. ''History Magazine'', ''16''(1), 6–7. </ref>