Sir David Brewster, an
Scottish Optical Physicist at Edinburgh University, invented Kaleidoscopes in 1816.
He invented the word, too, from the Greek Kalos, beautiful + eidos,
form; + skopos to view. He was investigating the polarization of light when
he stumbled upon the remarkable kaleidoscopic effect that emerges when looking down the long axis of three mirrors
arranged in an equilateral triangle.
Sir David set up a large factory and sold 200,000 in Paris
and London in three months. They were quality instruments, precision made from silver and
bronze. For many years kaleidoscopes captured the fascination of the world, then cheap
imitations began to appear and the quality declined. Radio, and other forms of
entertainment lead to the demise of Sir David's kaleidoscopic empire. Kaleidoscopes have always been a
popular toy, and cheap imitations have
continued to fascinate children down through the years.
Today a few people,
who do not want to see our planet deprived
of such a fabulous creation, have begun making
good
ones again. Using modern ultra-flat high
reflective mirrors today's kaleidoscopes are
breathtaking.
Why are kaleidoscopes so fascinating? They are solid state
hand held virtual reality devices to demonstrate all about synergy and change and how larger
patterns are created by little patterns repeated over and over again. They
teach us about fascination, about surprise, and that, of
course, is what awareness is. Which is why it all seems so familiar when we
peer into one.
After looking through a good kaleidoscope, the first thing
you'll want to know is how they work. This is why so few of David Brewster's kaleidoscopes
ever became antiques.
Kaleidoscopes have a small chamber with bits of reality in
it - Moirascopes have rare tiny shells, exotic antique glass, even jewels. You look
through a hole at one end of the tube at the bits at the other end. The tube is lined with
three mirrors. They have to be front surface mirrors (with the silvering on the reflecting
side, most mirrors have the silvering on the back side of the glass). The three mirrors
are all the same width , cut to just slide into the tube to form an equilateral triangle. Most Kaleidoscopes have a frosted glass behind the objects so you look through
them, which is why most kaleidoscopes have bits of glass and other transparent or
translucent objects. You see the objects in the triangle formed by the three mirrors and
you see them reflected in the mirrors again and again and again in an infinite pattern.
 Teleidoscopes
are kaleidoscopes that have a lens system
to focus an image of the world into the triangle
of mirrors. I call mine a reality scope, but
mine is special. You simply can't even imagine
what the world looks like through a reality
scope. I mean you can't, you really can't
imagine.
You can see,
in the kaleidoscopic images I have on this
web site, how an equilateral triangle makes
up into a really spiffy matrix. Click here
to run through some.
That is absolutely
nothing compared to viewing reality - flowers,
waves, rivers, people - through a teleidoscope
or a reality scope. They change motion into
something that has to be seen before you can
get a mental image of it. I'm working on including
some in the next upgrade of this website.
Just to get a itsy
bitsy fraction of an idea, set up the Fractal
program I have included on this disk and load
in one of the many sample fractal images.
Then cycle the colors and look out!
Reality scopes are much more mind boogling.
You can probably find a good quality kaleidoscope and
possibly a teleidoscope in most big cities these days. Check out the adventure and nature
type shops. There is a place in San Francisco called the Light Opera that has a huge
selection. But not mine.
To get one of my
Moirascopes
you have to order one
from me because I hand make them.
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