The kaleidoscope

WITH ITS APPLICATION TO THE FINE AND USEFUL ARTS.
BY SIR DAVID BREWSTER, K.H., M.A., D.C.L.,
F.R.S., V.P.R.S., EDIN., M.R.I.A., F.G.S., F.R.A.S., ASSOCIATE OF THE IMPERIAL INSTITUTE OF FRANCE, HONORARY OR CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE ACADEMIES OF PETERSBURGH, VIENNA, BERLIN, COPENHAGEN, STOCKHOLM, BRUSSELS, GOTTINGEN, MODENA, AND OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF WASHINGTON, AND PRINCIPAL OF THE UNITED COLLEGES OF ST. SALVATOR AND ST. LEONARD, ST. ANDREWS.
Nihil tangit quod non ornat.
Third Edition, greatly enlarged .
WITH FIFTY-SIX WOOD ENGRAVINGS AND ONE PLATE.
LONDON: JOHN CAMDEN HOTTEN, PICCADILLY. 1870.

ON THE KALEIDOSCOPE.
HISTORY OF THE KALEIDOSCOPE.
The name Kaleidoscope, which I have given to a new Optical Instrument, for creating and exhibiting beautiful forms, is derived from the Greek words χαλός , beautiful ; εἶδος , a form ; and σχοπέω , to see .
The first idea of this instrument presented itself to me in the year 1814, in the course of a series of experiments on the polarization of light by successive reflexions between plates of glass, which were published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1815, and which the Royal Society did me the honour to distinguish by the adjudication of the Copley Medal. In these experiments, the reflecting plates were necessarily inclined to each other during the operation of placing their surfaces in parallel planes; and I was therefore led to remark the circular arrangement of the images of a candle round a centre, and the multiplication of the sectors formed by the extremities of the plates of glass. In consequence, however, of the distance of the candles, &c., from the ends of the reflectors, their arrangement was so destitute of symmetry, that I was not induced to give any farther attention to the subject.