The kaleidoscope

by David Brewster

The operations of machinery have, however, a still higher character in comparison with those of individual exertion, when they enable us to obtain any article, either of necessity or of luxury, in a more perfect state. In this case, the machine effects what is beyond the reach of manual labour; and instead of being the mere representative of animal force, it exhibits a concentration of talent and skill which could not have been obtained by uniting the separate exertions of living agents.

When we consider, that in this busy island thousands of individuals are wholly occupied with the composition of symmetrical designs, and that there is scarcely any profession into which these designs do not enter as a necessary part, so as to employ a portion of the time of every artist, we shall not hesitate in admitting, that an instrument must have no small degree of utility which abridges the labour of so many individuals. If we reflect further on the nature of the designs which are thus composed, and on the methods which must be employed in their composition, the Kaleidoscope will assume the character of the highest class of machinery, which improves at the same time that it abridges the exertions of individuals. There are few machines, indeed, which rise higher above the operations of human skill. It will create, in a single hour, what a thousand artists could not invent in the course of a year; and while it works with such unexampled rapidity, it works also with a corresponding beauty and precision.

The artist who forms a symmetrical design, is entirely ignorant of the effect till it is completed—and if the design is to be embodied in coloured materials, or in stone, or any other solid substance, he has no means of predicting the final effect which it is to produce. Every result, in short, is a matter of uncertainty: and when the work is completed, it must remain as it is. The art of forming designs, therefore, is in a state of extreme imperfection; and a more striking proof of this could not be obtained than from the servility with which we copy, at the present moment, the mouldings and ornaments of Greek and Gothic architecture, and the decorations which embellish the furniture, the dresses, and the utensils of the Romans.

If the Kaleidoscope had been an instrument which merely enabled us to project upon a plane surface a variety of designs of the same character as those which the artist forms with his pencil, it would still have been an instrument of great utility. But it does much more than this. When properly constructed, and rightly applied, it exhibits the final effect of the design, when executed in the best manner; and it does this, not only by embodying the very materials out of which the reality is to be produced; but by exhibiting, instead of lights and shades, the very eminences and depressions which necessarily exist in every design the parts of which lie in various planes.

In proceeding to point out the practical methods of obtaining these effects from the Kaleidoscope, we take it for granted that the artist has one or other of the correct instruments described in the preceding chapters, and that they are mounted upon a stand, and furnished with Dr. Wollaston’s Camera Lucida, for enabling him to copy the designs which he wishes to perpetuate.

1. Architectural Ornaments.

Almost every public and private edifice, with the exception of picturesque cottages, and buildings erected for the purposes of defence, has a regular form, consisting of two halves, one of which is the inverted image of the other. The inferior parts of the building, such as the doors and windows, have the same regular character; and hence it necessarily follows, that all the decorations, whether in the form of rectilineal borders, circular patterns, or groups of figures, should not only have the same symmetry, but should also be symmetrically related to the bisecting line which separates the building into two halves. If, for example, a rectilineal border, surrounding a building like a belt, consists of a pattern, or of lines inclined in one direction, such a border is not symmetrically related to the vertical and horizontal lines of which the building consists. Hence it will follow, that sculptures, representing an action of any kind, or statues representing living objects, when they are sufficiently large to be seen at the same time with the whole building, can never connect themselves with its regular outline. If these sculptures, or statues, are inverted so as to form a Kaleidoscope pattern, like the beautiful sculpture in the door of the temple of Jun-wassa,[12] they may then be employed without the risk of destroying the general symmetry of the edifice. These remarks are equally applicable to every object which derives its beauty from symmetry; and it is curious to observe the numerous deviations from this principle, and the bad effects they produce on some of the finest vases and ornaments of the Romans.[13] If Mr. Cockerell’s ingenious theory[14] of the original composition of the statues of Niobe and her children be correct, the mode of grouping the figures will show how much the artist was disposed to sacrifice every other kind of effect, to obtain something like a symmetrical group within the pediment. The gradual increase in the height of the statues towards the middle of the tympanum, and their inclination on both sides towards the same point, form strong proofs of Mr. Cockerell’s hypothesis, and afford a singular example, the only one with which we are acquainted, of an attempt to reconcile the apparently incongruous effect of a real picture and a symmetrical group. Had the statues been confined to one-half of the tympanum, while the other half was a reflected image of the first, we are persuaded, that though the effect, as a picture, would have been diminished, yet the effect, as a part of the temple, would have been greatly increased. A very remarkable example of this species of symmetry is shown in the fine painting of the Four Sibyls, by Raphael, which is now in the church of Santa Maria della Pace, at Rome.

After the architect has fixed upon the nature and character of his ornaments, he must cut, upon the surface of a large stone, or place in relief upon it, the elements of a variety of patterns. These elements need not be exact representations of any object, or any portion of it, though, in some cases, an approximation to this may be desirable. When this stone is set in a vertical position, and so that the light may fall obliquely upon its surface, for the purpose of giving light and shade to the pattern, the Kaleidoscope should be placed exactly opposite the stone, and at a distance from it corresponding to the magnitude of the pattern which is wanted. The tube containing the lens or lenses, being put on, or the inner tube being drawn out, if the instrument consists of two complete tubes, it must be adjusted to the distance of the stone, or till an image of the stone is formed at the end of the reflectors. When this adjustment is perfect, the Kaleidoscope must be directed to the carved part of the stone, out of which it is proposed to form the pattern; and by slight changes in its position, by turning it round its axis, and by varying the inclination of the reflectors, an immense variety of the most beautiful designs will be exhibited, in the finest relief, and as perfect as if they had been carved out of the stone by the most skilful workman. The architect has therefore only to select from the profusion of designs which are thus presented to him; and when he has made his choice, he may either copy it photographically, or with his eye, or by means of the Camera Lucida; or he may trace upon the stone the projection of the angular aperture of the instrument, in order that, in the execution of his work, he may have constantly before his eyes the real element out of which the picture is created. If, in the course of this selection, the picture should become capable of improvement, either by giving it depth in particular parts, or by altering the outline, this alteration can be easily made, and its effect throughout the whole ornament will be instantly seen.

If the architect is desirous to introduce into his ornament a natural object, such as a leaf, he may first try the effect which it will produce when applied in its natural state to the instrument, and he may then carve either the whole or the half of it in stone, and then examine what will be its final effect. If one half of the leaf is an inverted image of the other half, it is necessary only to carve one half of it, and place the reflectors at an angle contained as many times in a circle as twice the number of times that he wishes the whole leaf to be multiplied: for example, if the whole leaf is to be multiplied six times, the angle of the mirrors must be ¹/₁₂th of 360°, or 30°. The very same effect would be obtained by applying the whole leaf to the instrument when the inclination of the reflectors is 60°, or ⅙th of 360°. But when the whole leaf is not symmetrical in itself, or consists of two dissimilar halves, it must be applied in its entire state to the instrument.

In the formation of circular Gothic windows, the architect will find the Kaleidoscope a most important auxiliary. By applying it to a mullion drawn upon paper, with a portion of the curves which he wishes to introduce, or by placing it upon various ornamental parts of the drawing of a Gothic cathedral, he will obtain combinations to which he has never observed the slightest approximation.