Last year, the popular kaleidoscope toy turned 200 years old. However, it was created by the Scottish physicist David Brewster is not at all for the game. It was a very serious adaptation for artists and designers. The device helped them to develop complex patterns and ornaments for fabrics, wallpaper, ceramic products, etc.
By putting elements of a certain color into the tube, the artists achieved the expected theme and content.
However, almost immediately, a kaleidoscope, along with its design and scientific use, became incredibly popular as a children's toy. In a few days, its creator managed to sell more than 30 thousand pieces! Production did not even keep up with demand, so Brewster had to turn to outside manufacturers for help.
Origin of the word
The "kaleidoscope" etymologically goes back to just three ancient Greek words that make up it. These words in translation sound like "beautiful" plus "view" plus "watch." Putting it together, we get something like "beautiful views that can be observed." Speaking even simpler and shorter - "beautiful pictures."
We often use the word "kaleidoscope" in a figurative sense, bearing in mind that life around us changes quickly and irrevocably - like patterns in a "magic tube."
What is a kaleidoscope
A kaleidoscope in the dictionary of Vladimir Dahl is interpreted as a "patterner." The essence of the device is described as follows:
this is a tube with two wedge mirrors, where colored glass is reflected by a patterned star, a variable, with any movement or revolution of the tube.
Additionally, the meaning of the word kaleidoscope can be explained. This is an optical device that can consist of two, three, four or more flat long mirror plates. In an ordinary children's toy, a kaleidoscope is a prism in which mirrored surfaces "look" at each other. Between them are many small elements of different colors.
So, the simplest kaleidoscope is a children's toy. It usually consisted of 3 mirrors mounted at an angle of 60 degrees and was enclosed in a long cylinder. An eyepiece was placed at one end of this cylinder, and a plate of opaque translucent material was placed at the other. Looking into the eyepiece, the tube should be directed matte end to the light and rotate. The rolling fragments reflected in the mirrors formed bizarre, very different patterns in the field of vision. In a toy, these patterns, as a rule, had three-beam symmetry.
The smaller the angle between the mirrors, the greater the number of identical images received looking into the tube. An angle of 45 degrees gave eight images, 60 - six, and 90 - just four.
The children were always curious, and since the tube was easily disassembled, it was possible to experiment with trifles hanging in a kaleidoscope: for example, put beads, beads, buttons, pieces of ceramics or mother of pearl, and even small feathers inside. Such experiments significantly increased the options for images that were never repeated. One turn of the tube - and the existing picture will be destroyed, and a new one will appear in its place.
All this aroused imagination and turned a kaleidoscope into an interesting game.
The first kaleidoscopes
Despite the patented invention of the respected Sir Brewster, the history of the kaleidoscope claims that the very first versions of the “magic pipe” appeared due to the experiments of M.V. Lomonosov, when he studied the properties of glasses and the scope of its application. Several copies of kaleidoscopes made by a Russian scientist are even stored in the Hermitage.
However, due to the annoying bureaucratic trifle - patents were still not issued then - Lomonosov's kaleidoscopes were never recognized, and the official version of the invention of this optical device ascribes it to Brewster.
Kaleidoscope Features
Although the kaleidoscope is quite well known, says Y. Perelman in his book “Entertaining Physics,” you are unlikely to be able to calculate how many different figures you get when you rotate this tube:
Suppose you are holding a kaleidoscope with 20 glasses in it and rotate it 10 times per minute to get a new arrangement of reflecting glasses. How long will it take you to review all the resulting figures?
And he answers this question:
for this you will need at least 500,000 million years. Over five hundred million millennia, we need to rotate our kaleidoscope to review all its patterns!
Indeed, a kaleidoscope that has long ceased to be a novelty is a wonderful invention.
In addition, it is believed that observation in a kaleidoscope relaxes and calms, that is, it has a relaxing effect, and also makes it possible to disconnect from reality and look at the ordinary world in a new way.
Types of Kaleidoscopes
In addition to the usual children's tube toys, there are several quite unconventional such devices.
For example, a pneumatic kaleidoscope. Instead of glass fragments or beads, the space between the mirrors is filled with feathers. By means of a special bulb with a hose attached to it, air is pumped into the tube, which makes the feathers move.
Instead of tinsel, telescopes (or tele-telescopes) contain a lens on the end that reflects the elements of the surrounding world, visually breaks them up and turns them into patterned pictures.
A special version of the kaleidoscope is a tube with a thinner tube inserted perpendicularly and filled with gel or oil. A trifle inside is not spilled, but floats. Changes in pictures during rotation in this case occur constantly, but not quickly, gradually fading away after the kaleidoscope stops.
The world exhibition "Expo 2005" presented to the guests the largest of the made kaleidoscopes. Made by inventive Japanese, this truly telling attraction was a tower about forty-seven meters high. Spectators standing in the lobby of this building admired the many constantly changing patterned pictures on the huge circle of the ceiling. Along its edges, of course, panels of mirrors were inserted.
And how should this tower be rotated, you ask. This was the main trick. Sunlight poured through tower windows onto colored glass wheels, which, turning, constantly updated pictures.