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What is a Fresnel lens?
Home » RVs » Fresnel Lenses » What is a Fresnel lens?The Fresnel lens was invented by a French physicist, Augustin-Jean Fresnel. Augustin also helped to invent wave optics. Fresnel studies light and how it worked and functioned. The Fresnel lens was originally built for lighthouses. Fresnel lenses were designed in large sizes and small sizes. The only difference is there is no additional weight and volume of material involved as in conventional lenses. The advantage to Fresnel lenses is that less light is lost compared to other types of lenses. And with Fresnel lenses you can see the light further than regular lenses.
The Fresnel lens was made to be thinner and lighter so as to be more useful. When the lens is made, it is broken into a set of concentric annular sections. By separating the lens into sections, or zones as some call it, the overall thickness of the lens is reduced. This chops the surface of the lens into a set of surfaces that have the same curvature but with gaps between each section.
Fresnel lenses were made of different sizes and designs. Many of the early ones has an oil lantern burning constantly inside day and night, while the newer ones had lamps that shown continuously. Because of the demands for the lenses, each one that was created had to be unique. Some had to be built with flash panels while others had to be built with bull's eye type design. There were also Fresnel lenses that were red in color so red could be flashed out to sea for boats to see the light.
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