Pipe with colored glasses inside. Making a kaleidoscope

This year marks the 200th anniversary of a curious optical device, which each of us held in our hands at least once in childhood. It was created by the Scottish physicist David Brewster during experiments with the polarization of light. Brewster called the device a kaleidoscope.

Mirrors in a tube

The design of a kaleidoscope is very simple: a tube, inside which there are several longitudinal mirrors folded at an angle. Colored elements (most often glasses) are placed between the mirrors, their multiple reflections create symmetrical patterns that change when the tube is rotated around the longitudinal axis. Depending on the number of mirrors and the angle between them, a different number of duplicated reflections is obtained: 45° (four mirrors) - 8, 60° (three mirrors) - 6, 90° (two mirrors) - 4. One end of the tube is closed with frosted glass, and at the other end, the hole of small diameter is covered with transparent glass. In addition to glass, metal, plastic, beads, stones, mother-of-pearl, feathers are used as components. That's all mechanics with optics.

Inventor of the kaleidoscope

David Brewster(David Brewster) is known not only as the inventor of the kaleidoscope. He is one of the greatest optical physicists of the 19th century, his contemporaries called him "the father of experimental optics" and "Johannes Kepler in optics. The law of optics discovered by him in 1815 is named after him. "expressing the relationship of the refractive indices of two dielectrics with such an angle of incidence of light at which the light reflected from the interface between the dielectrics will be completely polarized in a plane perpendicular to the plane of incidence".

In addition to the kaleidoscope, Brewster invented the binocular camera, two types of polarimeters, a multizonal lens, and an improved version of the stereoscope (Brewster's lenticular stereoscope was the first portable device for viewing 3D images). In addition to experimental optics, Brewster popularized scientific discoveries, was editor of the 18-volume Encyclopedia of Edinburgh and author of a biography of Isaac Newton.
He was born on December 11, 1781 in Jedborough (Scotland) in the family of the director of the school. David was the third of six children in the family. At the age of 12 he was sent to study at the University of Edinburgh. At the university, he studied ... theology, took the priesthood and even became one of the founders of the Scottish Free Church. He was a pharmacist and a lawyer, and since 1801 he began to seriously engage in physics, mainly optics, to which he later devoted his whole life. In 1815, Brewster was elected a member of the Royal Society in London, in 1821 he became a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and in 1830 a foreign honorary member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In 1859 Sir David became rector of his native Edinburgh University. sticking to Christian creeds, Brewster opposed the ideas of species change and the theory of evolution (apparently, he was very critical of Charles Darwin). Was married twice. His first wife, Juliet MacPherson, was the daughter of James MacPherson, famous for his "translations" from the Gaelic poems of Ossian (Ossian's poems are a literary hoax). From their first marriage, the couple had four sons and a daughter. The second time Brewster married, celebrating his 75th birthday, in 1857, to Jane Kirk Purnell. Sir David died at the age of 87 on February 10, 1868, he was buried in his native places next to his first wife and second son. The mineral brusterite and a crater on the Moon are named after the physicist.

How was the kaleidoscope invented?

During his experiments on the polarization of light in 1815, Brewster noticed that shards of glass placed in a tube with mirrors create wonderful symmetrical patterns when reflected in the mirrors. The pattern changed depending on the angle at which the mirrors were placed to each other, as well as how many mirrors were used. By 1816, the original design of the kaleidoscope had taken shape. It was a tube with pairs of mirrors at one end and 2 pairs of translucent disks at the other, between which there were beads. Either in 1816, or in 1817 (sources differ in dates), Brewster patented his kaleidoscope and decided to make money on it. As a manufacturer of his kaleidoscopes, he chose the company of the then well-known manufacturer of achromatic lenses, Philip Carpenter. The case went on with great success. In the first three months of 1818, at least 200,000 kaleidoscopes were sold in London and Paris. The popularity of the new optical toy, and this is how the kaleidoscope began to be perceived, grew by leaps and bounds. This was facilitated by the "Treatise on the Kaleidoscope", written by the author of the invention. But Brewster failed to get very big money: the gaps and inaccuracies in his patent application allowed others to do everything that the inventor Brewster wanted to protect from copying.

Kaleidoscope in Russia

The appearance of the kaleidoscope in Russia coincided with the period of romanticism in Russian culture. At this time, stained-glass windows came into fashion, painters were fond of depicting natural light phenomena: sunsets, dawns, lightning. There was an interest in the so-called transparencies - transparent pictures. Kaleidoscopes, with their ever-changing patterns, came in very handy, as they corresponded to the aesthetics of the Romantic era. The fabulist A. Izmailov enthusiastically wrote in 1818 in the journal Blagonamerenny:
“I look - and what is in my eyes?
In different figures and stars
Sapphires, yachts, topazes,
And emeralds and diamonds
And amethysts and pearls
And mother-of-pearl - I see everything all of a sudden!
I'll just move my hand
And a new phenomenon in the eyes!
You can, of course, mention precious stones considered as poetic hyperbole, but they say that some rich man ordered a kaleidoscope in which, instead of glasses, patterns were made of precious stones. This kaleidoscope cost, presumably, fabulous money.

In the 1870s, the American optician Charles Bush developed the so-called "living room kaleidoscope", which was a black oblong cylinder placed on a wooden tripod. The cylinder rotated 360 degrees, and had a copper drum at the end with spokes for which this drum could be rotated. The drum was the most important detail in Bush's kaleidoscope. It contained 35 pieces of glass, a third of which was filled with liquid. Air bubbles floated inside the liquid and continued to move even after the drum was stopped. All the pieces of glass had brilliant, well-matched colors and created patterns that no other 19th-century kaleidoscope could match.

For 2 weeks in May 2005, visitors to the Maximilian Park in Hamm, Germany, could literally look ... into themselves ...

At the World Expo 2005, a grandiose Japanese optical attraction was presented to the public: the largest kaleidoscope ever made, which was built in the form of a huge tower 47 meters high.

From the vestibule (more than 40 meters in diameter), the spectators could observe impressive patterns on the round ceiling above their heads. Three huge mirror panels were placed around the perimeter of the tower. The rays of the sun, penetrating through the windows of the tower, fell on the rotating large wheels of colored glass and created constantly updated multi-colored paintings.

The well-known Soviet popularizer of science Ya.I. Perelman wrote that if you have a kaleidoscope with 20 pieces of glass and you rotate it 10 times per minute, then you will need 500 billion years (!!!) to see all the patterns (according to modern concepts, the age of our Universe is 13.75± 0.11 billion years). Well, everything is correct: Eternity in the Universe-Kaleidoscope puts together patterns from moments.

Types of kaleidoscopes

There are several main varieties of kaleidoscopes:

Classic kaleidoscope with a multi-colored backfill that moves when the body of the kaleidoscope rotates around its axis.

Gel (or oil) kaleidoscopes exist in several versions. All of them are united by the presence of a gel-like substance, in which there is a multi-colored backfill, sometimes in the form of beads, colored glasses, figured elements of foil and other materials. In them, the effect of movement appears before the eyes due to the flow of a gel solution with a multi-colored backfill, which is reflected in a system of mirrors.

Kaleidoscope with rotating rings better known in the countries of the East than in Russia. The traditional optical arrangement of three mirrors inside reflects patterns that are created by rotating one or two rings at the end of the tube.

thaleidoscopes- products with a traditional optical design that do not have a colored filling inside. Patterns are created from the reflection of particles of the world around us. The fragment of the image, at which the thaleidoscope tube is directed, is enlarged due to the lens and is repeatedly reflected from the mirror internal prism. Inside the thaleidoscope, the environment familiar to us is transformed into an extraordinary world.

What is hidden in the name?

Word "kaleidoscope" essentially a kind of abbreviation of three Greek words:
καλός - beautiful,
εἶδος - view,
σκοπέω - I look, I observe.
It's funny that the first word, if you pronounce it ("kalos"), evokes thoughts not about something beautiful, but quite the contrary. Well, this phenomenon is not uncommon: often words that are euphonious in one language are very dissonant in another.
Vladimir Ivanovich Dal in his Dictionary calls the kaleidoscope also a pattern, but here figurative meaning does not result yet. Modern dictionaries give two interpretations of the word "kaleidoscope": direct - an optical instrument-toy, and figuratively - a quick change of phenomena, persons, events.

Kaleidoscope patterns without a kaleidoscope

In principle, kaleidoscope patterns can be generated without a kaleidoscope. All you need is the original pictures, some sleight of hand, and a bit of Photoshop. You cut out the primary triangle, and then you mirror it with three sides. You can display two or three times. The patterns are pretty interesting too. Here's a snack series "Seasons" (original photos of their own, not someone else's):

Seasons

Winter

Spring

Summer

Autumn

And a small series "Flower and Waves":

And in conclusion, I’ll say, paraphrasing you know who:
- What is our life? A solid kaleidoscope!

The full album of photo kaleidoscope patterns, as always, is in the Source.

municipal budgetary educational institution

"Yagunovskaya secondary school"

Kemerovo municipal district

"We are children of the 21st century"

project

"Collection of elusive patterns"

Completed by: Boikova D., 5th grade student

Head: Boikova S.V.

Yagunovo, 2015

Content

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….3

Chapter 1. Kaleidoscope - a toy or a device?

1. The history of the kaleidoscope…………………………………………………….4

   The principle of operation of the kaleidoscope…………………………………………6

   Interesting facts…………………………………………………………7

Chapter 2. Results of the project………………………………………………….8

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………..9

Sources …………………………………………………………………….10

Application………………………………………………………………………11

Introduction

Everyone in childhood had a wonderful toy - a kaleidoscope. Iridescent patterns are fascinating, one could sit for hours and look at them. But there came a moment when I really wanted to know - how are they formed? You disassemble the toy and .... complete disappointment. Not clear, not clear, not interesting…

I became very interested in how a kaleidoscope works, and if I can make it myself.

The goal of my project was to create a kaleidoscope.

Project objectives:

Review of literature on the topic.

Creation of prototypes of kaleidoscopes from different materials.

I'll just move my hand
And a new phenomenon in the eyes!

Chapter 1. Kaleidoscope toy or device?

1. History of the kaleidoscope

The kaleidoscope was invented in 1817 by the Scottish physicist David Brewster (1781-1868) and was not considered a toy in its early days.

The kaleidoscope was immediately carried away by the whole Western Europe. They quickly learned about him in Russia. And when he was turned into a toy for children, adults somehow lost interest in him. Children were more interested not in beautiful patterns, but in the question: “What is inside there?” And usually, in order to satisfy their curiosity, the kaleidoscope was opened, dismantled, and disappointed with unsightly fragments, they threw them away ...

At the international exhibition in Paris in 1900 Russian Empire a pavilion was built, calledMirage Palace.The small hall consisted of sixmirror walls,at the junctions of which were placedon rotating stands tropical plants, column of the eastern templeor a fragment of the colonnade of the famous "Alhambra" from Spain. As the stands turned, the visitor felt himself inside a temple or an oriental palace, or even in tropical forest. The hall of mirrors grew huge and filled with crowds as the visitor and fragments of decoration were reflected in the walls. over 450 times .

For 2 weeksin May 2005, visitors to the Maximilian park in Hamm
in Germany they could literally look into the pipe.
20 huge kaleidoscopes with multi-colored internal containers and various principles of operation allowed visitors to plunge into freaky world fantasy. Kaleidoscopes were developed by the Bonn industrial designer R. Rau. (Fig.1.)

Each picture in the kaleidoscope, unique and fleeting in its own way, fascinated both children and adults. Even just one slight turn of the overall pipe up to 2 m long destroyed the visible picture forever - and immediately created a completely new and unique one.

The original version of the kaleidoscope was introduced by the engineer-inventor K. Petkunas at the carpet factory. In it, patterns could be created not only with transparent colored pieces of glass, but also with small stones, chains, rings, etc. For this, the end of the tube was made of transparent organic glass, and its end was closed with an opaque circle. small items to create patterns, they were now illuminated only by side light and well reflected by the mirrors of the trihedral prism. The patterns were even more varied and original.

Rice. 1 Kaleidoscope R. Rau.

At the World Expo 2005, a grandiose optical attraction was presented to the public: the largest kaleidoscope ever made was built in the form of a huge tower 47 meters high. (Fig. 2).

Rice. 2 Kaleidoscope at Expo 2005.

Spectators could observe impressive patterns on the round ceiling from the lobby with a diameter of more than 40 meters. Three huge mirror panels were placed around the perimeter of the tower. The rays of the sun, penetrating through the windows of the tower, fell on the rotating large wheels of colored glass and created constantly updated multi-colored paintings.

1. The principle of operation of a kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope in explanatory dictionary Dalia named"pattern". And then its device is described: “this is a tube with two wedge mirrorswhere colored glass is reflected by a patterned star, a variable, with every movement or turn of the tube.

Kaleidoscope - this is optical instrument, which is based on the principle of reflection of light from flat mirrors, forming an angle between them.

Image in a flat mirrorimaginary ("behind the mirror"), straight (not inverted), full size and located symmetrically to the source relative to the plane of the mirror.

Fig.3 The principle of reflection of a flat mirror.

Fig.4. The angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection.

Most mirrors are made from very smooth glass coated on the back.
a thin layer of highly reflective metal, so almost all the light falling on the mirror is reflected in one direction. Any other smooth surfaces (polished, lacquered, calm water surface) can also givemirror reflection.
If the smooth surface is also transparent, then only a small part of the light will be reflected, and the image will not be as bright.

Inside the kaleidoscope can standfrom 2-3 mirrors to 4 or more.Different mutual arrangement of mirrors allows obtaining a different number of duplicated images of one object: at angles between mirrors of 45° - 8 images, at 60° - 6 images, at 90° - 4 images.

Beads, pieces of glass, pieces of paper, feathers, etc. are used as fillers. Patterns in a kaleidoscope are almost neverare not repeated.As stated in famous book ME AND. Perelman, if you have a kaleidoscope with 20 pieces of glass, and you turn it 10 times per minute, then you will need500,000 million years
to view all patterns.

The most important detail of a kaleidoscope is a trihedral mirror prism. If there is no mirror, then you can use ordinary glass, painted on one side with black paint, in which case the painted side should be outside. The edges of the prism must be fixed. Then the prism is placed in the cylinder. The ends of the cylinder are closed, on the one hand it is frosted glass, on the other hand it is transparent. Where do patterns come from? Between the glasses it is necessary to place a “pattern chamber”, it is there that beads and glass are placed, which are repeatedly reflected, giving unique patterns.

1. Interesting Facts

The kaleidoscope is used by artists to create various patterns, such as wallpaper, fabric, jewelry etc.

During Newton's lifetime He was best known for his research in the field of optics.
BUThis work "Optics"for decades was considered an encyclopedia of the science of light.
in Syracuse where set on fire with mirrorsenemy ships, a monument was erected to him, depicting a scientist from spherical mirror in hands directed
towards the sea.
wrote his treatises using a mirror. His manuscripts were first deciphered only three centuries later.

The first optical semaphore telegraphconnected at the end of the 17th century Paris with the city of Lille.
By the middle of the 19th century, several optical telegraph lines were already operating in Russia, the largest
of which was the line St. Petersburg - Warsaw, which had 149 intermediate points.
The signal between these cities passed in just a few minutes, moreover, only during the day and with good visibility.

living mirrors - glowing in the dark or shiny fish scales, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow - thiswell reflectivesurface light.

In some animals, the work of the eye is basedon mirror optics.Nature has created multilayer mirrors. An important structure of the eye that improves the night vision of many terrestrial nocturnal animals is a flatmulti-layer mirror "tapetum",which makes the eyes glow in the dark. Therefore, the cat's eye can see the surrounding objects in the light
6 times less than what a person needs. The same mirror was found in some fish.

Chapter 2. Results of the work

To create a kaleidoscope, it was necessary to assemble a trihedral prism. In this case, the edges should be equal. We took glass with a width of 24 cm and a length of 65 cm. When assembling a prism, an angle of 60 degrees is obtained between the faces, so there will be 6 reflections in the kaleidoscope. The work was carried out according to the algorithm:

To create a kaleidoscope, three ordinary glasses were taken.

Glasses were painted with paint (Fig.)

A glass prism was assembled and placed in a cardboard cylinder (Fig.).

A patterned chamber was made from transparent plexiglass by placing various objects inside (rice).

Ready!

In this kaleidoscope, smooth glasses were used and therefore clear reflections are visible. We created another kaleidoscope, but instead of glasses, we used a metal mirror plate. As a result, nothing happens, because. the principle “the angle of incidence is equal to the angle of reflection” is not respected.

Rice. 5. Scattered light and reflection.

Conclusion

The kaleidoscope was originally and remains an optical device based on the principles of reflection of a flat mirror. When creating kaleidoscopes, I had to use mathematical skills - calculate the angles between faces, fit a prism into a cylinder, etc. It was interesting and educational. It turned out that a metal mirror surface does not reflect rays according to the principle of a flat mirror, so kaleidoscope patterns are not obtained.http://www.nkj.ru/archive/articles/9935/ -January 30, 2015).

Antique glass mirrors (electronic resource

Attachment 1

Rice. 1. Preparation of glass kaleidoscope blanks.

Rice. 2. Details of a kaleidoscope.

Rice. 2. Prism in assembly.

Rice. 3. Patterned kaleidoscope camera.

Fig.4,5,6. patterns.

Rice. 7.Metal kaleidoscope prism.

Rice. 8.9. Patterns in a metal prism.

Kaleidoscope is a device very similar to a spyglass or telescope. This device is equipped with mirrors set at a certain angle (of a triangular prism). In one of the bases of the prism there is a double glass bottom, small multi-colored objects are poured between the glasses. In the opposite base of the prism is an eyepiece (Fig. 4).

It is important that the visible picture " stable”, does not change with small perturbations of the kaleidoscope. For the pattern to be sustainable"and symmetrical - only in this case the device is called a kaleidoscope - only three types of triangles are suitable for building a prism.

In the most common type of kaleidoscope, the triangle in the cross section of a prism is an equilateral one with angles of 60°. This option is also convenient from a production point of view - all mirrors are the same

If we consider prisms not only with a triangular base, then a kaleidoscope can also be built on the basis of polygons.

5. Making a kaleidoscope

The most important detail of the kaleidoscope - mirror prism. It can contain a different number of mirrors. The edges of the prism must be fixed with adhesive tape. It is most convenient to make a prism with an equilateral triangle at the base (the design is rigid). Then the prism is placed in the cylinder and fixed by sealing the gaps with paper or any other material.

The ends of the cylinder are closed, on the one hand, with an eyepiece, and on the other hand, a "pattern chamber" is placed - beads and glass are placed between the glasses (transparent and frosted), which are repeatedly reflected, give unique patterns.

Frosted glass can be replaced with a loose cloth (it is convenient to attach it to a cylindrical surface with double-sided tape).

Conclusions: In order for the pattern in the kaleidoscope to be symmetrical and clear, you must adhere to the following rules:

1. Two mirrors should be placed at an angle dividing the circle into a whole number of parts.

2. The object must be located directly in front of reflective surfaces.

3. Filler for the kaleidoscope pattern chamber, it is advisable to select multi-colored, do not large sizes and transparent.

4. best point to observe the ornament - as close as possible to the junction of the mirrors.

5. Objects falling into the space between two mirrors are reflected in them, their reflections and reflections of their reflections are reflected, forming a symmetrical circular pattern that comes to life when the objects move relative to the kaleidoscope.

Conclusion

"If you have a kaleidoscope with 20 pieces of glass and you turn it 10 times a minute, it will take you 500,000 million years to see all the patterns."

Kaleidoscope is a positive field generator. He is able to create a mood, disperse longing, improve well-being. Fifteen minutes of looking at kaleidoscope pictures is comparable to five minutes of healthy laughter. Kaleidoscope is a home therapist.

It helps relieve fatigue of the optic nerve, which is especially important in modern world computers and electronics. The kaleidoscope is such a useful toy. The principle of its operation is based on the properties of mirror symmetry. Experimenting with mirrors, it was proved that the number of reflections of an object in mirrors depends on the angle between them: the smaller the angle, the more images.

The hypothesis was confirmed. In the process of creating kaleidoscopes, it was noticed that the easiest to manufacture is a kaleidoscope with a mirror correct triangular prism(base is an equilateral triangle).

The knowledge about mirror symmetry gained during the work on the project answered many questions related to this phenomenon and its application: the work of the mirror labyrinth is understandable, the use of mirrors in the interior expands the space, creating various symmetrical patterns, for example - for wallpaper, carpets, fabrics , jewelry uses mirror symmetry.

Practical significance:

• Gained application experience mathematical knowledge on practice.
• A booklet has been created with instructions for making a kaleidoscope and an explanation of the principle of operation.
• The possibility of using research materials, computer presentation in the elective classes was obtained.

Sources of information

1. Kaleidoscopes and reflection groups / E. B. Vinberg. Mathematical education. Series 3. 2003. Issue 7. With. 45-63.

2. Mathematics: Visual geometry. 5-6 cells. : textbook / I.F. Sharygin, L. N. Ernadzhieva. - 2nd ed., stereotype. - M: Bustard, 5015. -189 p.

3. Mathematical component / Editors-compilers N. N. Andreev, S. P. Konovalov, N. M. Panyunin. - M .: Fund " Mathematical studies", 2015. - 151 p.

I look - and what is in my eyes?
In different figures and stars
Sapphires, yachts, topazes,
And emeralds and diamonds
And amethysts and pearls
And mother-of-pearl - I see everything all of a sudden!
I'll just move my hand
And a new phenomenon in the eyes!

(A. Izmailov, in the magazine "Good" for 1818)

A kaleidoscope of events, a kaleidoscope of history, events are spinning like in a kaleidoscope ... Such familiar clichés. But in childhood, with the word kaleidoscope, there was only one simple association - a toy. In general, children's toys very often hide behind a long interesting story sometimes toys become the passion of a lifetime. Adults often adopt their hobbies from children. So, by the way, it was with stamps - stamps At first, the children collected and played with them like with candy wrappers, exchanged, boasted. Now, not only children are seriously collecting stamps, they are hunting for stamps, saving money on them. long years, someone is ready to give everything for some especially valuable copy, sometimes a stamp costs a collector's life. But let's not deviate far from the subject of our conversation today. Let's get back to the kaleidoscope.

A kaleidoscope is an optical device in the form of a tube containing three longitudinal mirror glasses folded at an angle. When the tube of the longitudinal axis is turned, the colored elements (shards of colored glass) located between the mirrors are reflected and create changing symmetrical patterns.

But if the telescope is serious and for the few who study the sky, then the kaleidoscope is entertainment. First for the elite. Why - glass, and even more so a mirror, was expensive and could not be entertainment for commoners.

The appearance of stained-glass windows in churches in the middle of the 18th century stimulated the fashion for innocent secular entertainment: pieces of glass that line up in beautiful stained-glass fantasies.

I was struck by the extraordinary harmony, repetitive fragments, a riot of colors. The fashion for kaleidoscopes with constant periodicity covered the whole world. And for all the unpretentiousness of the design, people were fond of this simple device.

It is believed that this bright and seemingly simple, but bewitching children's toy was invented in 1816 by the Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster. Brewster has been interested in the properties of glass and light since childhood. At the age of 10, he built his first telescope. Then there were years of study at the University of Edinburgh (by the way, Brewster was a child prodigy, he became a student at the age of 12), the study of optics and the physics of light, and many scientific discoveries. It is interesting that Brewster, a truly multifaceted person, almost became a preacher: only natural modesty prevented him.

Entering the pulpit for the first time, Brewster literally lost his voice and never again dared to preach sermons. Contemporaries wrote that that day was grief for the Church and happiness for science. Science has indeed acquired a genius. However, Brewster - the inventor of the biconvex stereoscope, polygonal mirrors, the polarimeter and the designer of lenses for lighthouses - ironically gained fame through a seemingly simple child's toy. The kaleidoscope brought Brewster fame as a discoverer, but did not bring a penny of money. The patent was drawn up somehow too slowly, and enterprising businessmen quickly mastered the technology and toys that were simple in their execution appeared in all stores.

David Buster's kaleidoscope brings glory to its author, but that's all. The patent was issued too late, and during this time many enterprising businessmen managed not only to appreciate the invention, but also to intercept this new amazing idea. Soon, these simple in execution, but, at that time, completely original toys appeared in stores throughout the country. With splashes of colored glass fragments, repeatedly reflected by mirrors, a kaleidoscope burst into the monotonous life of all the inhabitants of that time, regardless of age, class and social status. Giving a kaleidoscope as a gift has become a good Scottish tradition.

By the time the news of the wonderful European invention reached America, it was already 1870. The American scientist Charles Bush, who got one of the kaleidoscopes brought from Europe, became extremely interested in the new "toy". Over the years, he created and modernized kaleidoscopes, tried to change their shape, tilt mirrors, content. It was Charles Bush who created the first "cabinet kaleidoscope" - a tube made of black thick cardboard, with a bronze swivel ring at the end, movably mounted on a beautiful wooden stand.

The chacroscope was designed and created by Meryl Ann Butler, an artist who is passionate about color theory and its effects on the human body. The traditional colors used in kaleidoscopes are responsible for certain areas in the chakras and the human body. Meryl Butler added four more colors that are traditionally responsible for feminine(silver), masculinity(gold), rebirth (fuchsia) and love (pink). Chacroscope exercises, according to Butler, allow a person to open his "inner vision."

The kaleidoscope has many fans: both children who look at patterns as fun, and artists who create the most complex and beautiful patterns, calculate incredible compositions, select materials, engineers, collectors, doctors and philosophers. Abroad, kaleidoscopes became so popular that in 1986 Cozy Baker created a special society that brought together all collectors and professionals, artists and theorists, manufacturers and buyers - the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society.

The last boom swept the world in the sixties. Then in America there was a box-office film "Playing Children". One of the iconic toy items in the film was a kaleidoscope. With the help of a magical kaleidoscope, the heroes "transformed" their gray everyday life into a bright world full of exciting adventures. There was an impression that it was not a film, but a bright and effective advertising campaign. Moms all over the world bought kaleidoscopes for their kids.

Nobody has seen the film in our country. But as an echo of that boom, paper kaleidoscopes were sold in every children's toy store. Actually behind them then the "image" of a typical children's toy was fixed.

In fact, not everything is so simple, if you look back at the past of this device. The fact is that the dubious glory of the tool of magicians stretched behind the kaleidoscope from the Middle Ages. It was as if there were such constructions that had to be read like a book of predictions. An uninitiated observer could see just a beautiful combination of colors. The initiates, knowing the language of symbols, used the tool for predictions, for interpretations. They asked questions and got answers.

Such instruments were prepared by unknown craftsmen and were incredibly expensive. Richly inlaid with expensive stones, and of course they carried an imprint, the spirit, if I may say so, of the owner of the instrument. No one except them could "read" the symbols of the stained-glass windows. "That's why they were not hunted for as well-known swords, wands, goblets and other artifacts. They did not know what to do with them once, and secondly - such a tool could "break" the fate of the uninvited user They were simply afraid.

When alchemy, soothsayers, witch-hunts were a thing of the past, this whole world of magic faded. And the kaleidoscope has lost its magical appeal.

The kaleidoscope has been known since ancient times. AT ancient egypt the prototype of the kaleidoscope is known. The Egyptians watched with admiration symmetrical figures, arising during the movements of dancers between polished limestone slabs arranged in a circle.
And only after many centuries, a device for obtaining symmetrical pictures using mirrors was called a kaleidoscope.
Kaleidoscope got its name from the Greek kalos - beautiful, eidos - view and skopeo - I look, I observe. And in Russia, a kaleidoscope was called a tube "showing beautiful views."

In Russia, a kaleidoscope appeared at the end of the 18th century and was invented by the great Russian scientist M.V. Lomonosov, who admired the beauty of glass and studied various ways its application. In his ode "On the Benefits of Glass" he enthuses:

“They think wrong about things, Shuvalov,
Which Glass is revered below minerals,
With an alluring ray shining in the eyes:
No less useful in it, no less beauty in it.
I sing praise before you in delight.
Not expensive stones, not gold, but Glass! .. "

Three of his kaleidoscopes are currently kept in the Hermitage. Unfortunately, Lomonosov's invention was not patented, because. the law on patents was adopted in Russia only in 1812.

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It is believed that the English physicist David Brewster invented the kaleidoscope. In 1816 he patented his kaleidoscope. During his experiments on the polarization of light, Brewster noticed that pieces of glass placed in a tube with mirrors create wonderful symmetrical patterns when reflected in the mirrors. The pattern changed depending on the angle at which the mirrors were placed to each other, as well as how many mirrors were used.

After the publication of A Treatise on the Kaleidoscope written by David Brewster, the invention became extremely popular, although it was not considered a toy at the beginning of its existence. After all, the original kaleidoscope was created by Brewster as a scientific instrument.

Later, the American optician Charles Bush made improvements to the device of the kaleidoscope and developed the so-called "living room kaleidoscope". Which began to be produced by the thousands. The kaleidoscope was a black oblong cylinder placed on a wooden tripod. The cylinder could rotate 360 ​​degrees, and had a copper drum at the end with spokes for which this drum could be rotated. The drum was the most remarkable detail in Bush's kaleidoscope. It contained glass pieces: there were 35 of them, and a third of them were filled with liquid. Air bubbles floated inside the liquid and continued to move even after the drum was stopped. All the pieces of glass had brilliant, well-matched colors and created patterns that no other 19th-century kaleidoscope could match. Bush received several patents from 1873 to 1874. The first - for hermetic ampoules filled with liquid, the second - for a device for replacing glass in the drum, which made the drum a reusable device; the third - to use the color wheel as a background for pictures; the fourth - on a four-legged wooden tripod, which could be removed and made the kaleidoscope an easily portable device.

Here is an old kaleidoscope, consisting of only two mirrors. The angle between the mirrors could be adjusted.

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All of Europe was immediately carried away by the kaleidoscope.

One of the French rich ordered a kaleidoscope of 20,000 francs. Instead of multi-colored glass, he ordered to put pearls and precious stones in it. Kaleidoscope was sung both in prose and in verse!

I look - and what is in my eyes?
In different figures and stars
Sapphires, yachts, topazes,
And emeralds and diamonds
And amethysts and pearls
And mother of pearl - all of a sudden I see!
I'll just move my hand
And a new phenomenon in the eyes!
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Almost immediately after the invention of the device began practical use kaleidoscope. It was used by artists who created decorative patterns for fabrics, wallpaper or carpets. Particularly significant successes in drawing up patterns for fabrics with the help of an unusual tool occurred at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. "Kaleidoscope" motifs are found in the works of Russian and Western European artists.

Nowadays, a device has been invented with which you can photograph the patterns of a kaleidoscope and, thus, mechanically invent all kinds of ornaments. The kaleidoscope creates patterns of striking beauty, and perhaps even the fantasies of the most prolific artists cannot compete with the ingenuity of the kaleidoscope.