Remember playing with one of these in your early years? The beautiful colors, shapes, designs would entertain us for hours! I think these were a staple of many children's toy chests!
A Kaleidoscope operates on the principle of multiple reflection, where several mirrors are together. Typically there are three rectangular lengthwise mirrors. Here's a brief history from Wikipedia.
Sir David Brewster began work leading towards invention of the kaleidoscope in 1815 when he was conducting experiments on light polarization[1]but it was not patented until two years later.[6] His initial design was a tube with pairs of mirrors at one end, pairs of translucent disks at the other, and beads between the two. Brewster chose renowned achromatic lens developer Philip Carpenter as the sole manufacturer of the kaleidoscope in 1817. It proved to be a massive success with two hundred thousand kaleidoscopes sold in London and Paris in just three months. Realizing that the company could not meet this level of demand, Brewster requested permission from Carpenter on 17 May 1818 for the device to be made by other manufacturers, to which he agreed.[7] Initially intended as a science tool, the kaleidoscope was later copied as a toy. Brewster later believed he would make money from this popular invention; however, a fault in his patent application allowed others to copy his invention.[1 ]Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidoscope
Fast-forward to today and our world of technology. Take a look at this ONLINE Kaleidoscope! Enjoy!
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