Kaleidoscope
KALEIDOSCOPE (from Gr. (caX6s, beautiful, eKos, form, and ffKoirtiv, to view). The article REFLECTION explains the symmetrical arrangement of images formed by two mirrors inclined at an angle which is a sub-multiple of four right angles. This is the principle of the kaleidoscope, an optical toy which received its present form at the hands of Sir David Brewster about the year 1815, and which at once became exceedingly popular owing to the beauty and variety of the images and the sudden and unexpected changes from one graceful form to another. A hundred years earlier R. Bradley had employed a similar arrangement which seems to have passed into oblivion (New Improvements of Planting and Gardening, 1710). The instrument has been extensively used by designers. In its simplest form it consists of a tube about twelve inches long containing two glass plates, extending along its whole length and inclined at an angle of 60. The eye-end of the tube is closed by a metal plate having a small hole at its centre near the intersection of the glass plates. The other end is closed by a plate of muffed glass at the distance of distinct vision, and parallel to this is fixed a plate of clear glass. In the intervening space (the object-box) are contained a number of fragments of brilliantly coloured glass, and as the tube is turned round its axis these fragments alter their positions and give rise to the various patterns. A third reflecting plate is sometimes employed, the cross-section of the three forming an equilateral triangle. Sir David Brewster modified his apparatus by moving the object-box and closing the end of the tube by a lens of short focus which forms images of distant objects at the distance of distinct vision. These images take the place of the coloured fragments of glass, and they are symmetrically multiplied by the mirrors. In the polyangular kaleidoscope the angle between the mirrors can be altered at pleasure. Such instruments are occasionally found in old collections of philosophical apparatus and they have been used in order to explain to students the formation of multiple images. (C. J. J.)
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
