The kaleidoscope : $b its history, theory and construction. With its application to the fine and useful artsBrewster, David
Science
The kaleidoscope : $b its history, theory and construction. With its application to the fine and useful arts
Brewster, David
Kaleidoscopes
Since the invention of the Kaleidoscope, the discovery of the
photographic art—of the Daguerreotype and Talbotype processes, has
given a new value to the instrument. By means of a Kaleidoscope Camera,
the most complex figures can be almost instantaneously transferred to
paper, or to plated copper, and hundreds of designs offered to the
choice of the artist who is to employ them. The very same figure which
is obtained by one mode of illumination, may be altered indefinitely,
by merely changing the direction or the intensity of the light, all
the objects which give the figure remaining fixed in the object-box.
The optical arrangement by which these figures may be copied,
photographically, is substantially the same as that which is shown in
Fig. 52, where =C G D F= is the Kaleidoscope, =A O= the object-box,
and =L L= a small achromatic lens, of rock crystal or glass, a quarter
of an inch in diameter, placed in contact with the extremities of the
glass or metallic reflectors, and having its centre immediately behind
the small opening at =E=. When the rays of the sun, or any other strong
light, containing the actinic rays, are thrown obliquely upon the
object-box =A O=, an image of the Kaleidoscopic figure, produced by the
objects in the object-box, will be formed at =P P=, in the focus of the
lens =L L=. If the focal length of the lens =L L= is equal to one-half
=C G=, the length of the Kaleidoscope, the image will be formed behind
=L L=, at a distance equal to =C G=, and of the same size as the
object-box; but if the focal length of =L L= is greater than the half
of =C G=, the image will be formed at a greater distance than =C G=,
behind the lens, and the size of it will be greater than that of the
object-box, the distance and the size of the picture increasing as the
focal length of the lens increases; and when it becomes equal to =C G=,
the size and the distance of the picture will be infinitely great. When
the focal length of the lens is less than half =C G=, the figure will
be smaller than the object-box, and nearer the lens.
_The Kaleidoscope Camera._
Every camera employed for the purposes of photography may be readily
adapted for taking the pictures formed by the Kaleidoscope. We have
only to take out the lens or lenses which belong to it, and place the
Kaleidoscope furnished with its lens =L L=, Fig. 52, in the inner tube,
which is movable by means of the rack and pinion. If the picture can
be made distinct on the grey glass by the rack and pinion, a negative
or positive copy of it may be taken on collodion or paper, in the same
manner as other photographs. In some cameras the end of the box which
contains the grey glass is movable, backwards and forwards, so that the
adjustment for rendering the picture distinct may be effected, though
the Kaleidoscope is fixed in the front portion of the box.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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