Kaleidophone

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Kaleidophone on display at Palais de la Decouverte in Paris. Kaleidophone-IMG 7007-gradient.jpg
Kaleidophone on display at Palais de la Découverte in Paris.

The kaleidophone is a "philosophical toy" that produces moving optical figures.

Contents

History

The kaleidophone was invented by Charles Wheatstone, who published an account of the device in 1827. [1]

The name "kaleidophone" was derived from the kaleidoscope, an optical toy invented in 1817 by David Brewster.[ citation needed ]

Wheatstone's photometer was probably suggested by this appliance. The photometer enables two lights to be compared by the relative brightness of their reflections in a silvered bead, which describes a narrow ellipse, so as to draw the spots into parallel lines.[ citation needed ]

There are several different versions of the kaleidophone, but in all cases at least one slender rod is fixed at one end and has a shiny bead fixed to the other end of the rod. As the rod vibrates the spot is seen to describe Lissajous curves in the air, like a spark whirled about in the darkness. [2]

References

  1. ↑ https://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/papers/koenig_apparatus/Kaleidophone/Kaleidophone.html [ dead link ]
  2. ↑ "Kaleidophone". Archived from the original on 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2017-05-23.
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