Once in awhile an “ah-ha!” hits when you least expect it. Such was the case early in the morning when I was preparing to brew some coffee to start the day. I had just filled the clear Pyrex coffee pot with water and set it down on a pile of paperwork momentarily to engage in conversation. As we concluded I looked down to pick up the coffee pot and noticed that I could read the paperwork text beneath it while viewing it through the pot’s upper rim. The letters were much larger and it dawned on me that the pot had become a make-shift magnifier.

For those who have seen the movie “National Treasure” you may remember a scene where Ben Gates uses a bottle of drinking water as a magnifier to view the engraving of the Independence Hall tower clock printed on the back side of a hundred dollar bill. In both cases the curvature of the vessel transforms the clear water into a refractive lens.

For the “over-forty” crowd, this could be a life-saver when you forget your reading glasses and need to read fine-print like the numbers in a telephone directory. this magnifier is apt to be an urban method, but it’s good to have the knowledge and understanding because it may be applied to different vessels in different situations. Take time to try it out for yourself and get acquainted with it’s properties.