My mother has a semi-spherical paper weight
that she no longer keeps in the sun. While
visiting her in Texas, we went out to visit
the Houston Natural Science and left a letter
under the paperweight where it was in the
sunlight. When we came back, we found a hole,
with charred edges, burned in letter. Had we
left a stack papers, it quite likely could
have started a fire. It was quite a shock as
we sort figured that crystal ball could do this,
but have a seemingly harmless paperweight
possibly torch our house was something else.

Needless to say, our family is now quite paranoid
about spherical glass objects being placed where
they are in the sunlight.

This is nothing to laugh about as this is an
easy mistake to make with glass objects other
than crystal balls.

Best

Paul H.

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."
William Faulkner, Act 1, Scene III, Requiem for a Nun (1951)



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2005 10:52AM by Paul H..