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# Burning lens of Ehrenfried von Tschirnhaus, the only instrument of his in Russia
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/v-rossii-est-tolko-odin-pribor-znamenitogo-matematika-erenfrida-valtera-fon-chirnkhausa-1651-1708-eto-zazhigatelnaia-linza-ot-instrumenta-priobretennogo-akademiei-nauk-v-nachale-1700-kh/
- Published: 2019-07-07T08:38:50.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T19:01:09.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Museums, Science, People

In Russia there is only one instrument by the celebrated mathematician Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651-1708): the burning lens from a device acquired by the Academy of Sciences in the early 1700s. Until 1947 the lens was kept in the museum of the Physical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Tschirnhaus's optical glasses and large concave mirrors (variants: Tschirnhausen, Tschirnhaus) possessed a high incendiary potential and were very well known in their day. Such instruments usually consisted of a large main lens and a small converging lens rigidly connected to it.