AN IMPROVED OPTICAL INSTRUMENT, BEING AN IMPROVE- MENT UPON THE KALEIDOSCOPE
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Peover at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th February
1859.
I, GEORGE PEOVER, of Wilmington Square, Clerkenwell, in the County of
Middlesex, Mathematical Instrument Maker, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED OPTICAL INSTRUMENT, BEING AN IMPROVE-
MENT UPON THE KALEIDOSCOPE," to be as follows:-
My Invention of an improved optical instrument, which I intend to
denominate a chromeidoscope, relates to an improved mode of constructing
that kind of optical instrument which is familiarly known as the kaleidoscope.
This improved instrument consists of a tube having vertical reflecting mirrors
arranged angularly therein, as in the kaleidoscope, an eye-piece being placed
at one end of the tube and the object at the other end.
In kaleidoscopes, the object or image that is presented to the eye of the
observer is usually formed of small pieces of colored glass, tinsel, wire, paper,
or other small objects, which are confined within a suitable chamber at the
object end of the instrument, and the image is formed by such pieces of the
glass, tinsel, or other substance as are within sight, being reflected in the
mirrors placed in the body of the instrument, the change of image being
effected by the ever-varying position of the pieces of glass, tinsel, &c. In my
improved optical instrument, however, the object or the pieces composing the
same are arranged around or attached to a rotating shaft or spindle mounted
horizontally in a box or chamber on which the tube of the instrument is
secured. In any convenient part of this box or chamber is made a window or
opening to admit light to the object, which may be further illuminated by

page_text: means of reflectors placed inside the box or chamber, or by lining the latter
entirely with tin foil or other material that will reflect light. The object may
be formed of pieces of colored paper, tinsel, thin or sheet metal, minerals,
colored or ornamented silk, or other fabrics, or ribbon, lace, leaves, flowers,
and many other small objects, such as shells, feathers, hair, parts of insects,
&c.. These matters are to be arranged around the horizontal spindle or shaft
in any manner that the taste of the manufacturer of the instrument may
decide. The spindle or shaft may be made of such a length as to admit of
the object being moved laterally under the eye-piece, so as to give variety to
the image, for which purpose the ends of the spindle or shaft must be made
to project through slots or holes made in the ends of the box. Variations in
the image may also be obtained by moving the object backward or forward
under the eye-piece, in a line at right angles, or nearly so, to the other direc-
tion. As by this latter motion a greater or less portion of the object will be
brought into view, the image will appear to gradually increase or diminish, as
the motion is continued.
A rising and falling motion may also be imparted to the object, by making
vertical as well as horizontal slots in the ends of the box, to receive the shaft
or spindle, so that the object may be moved nearer to or further from the open
end of the reflecting tube.
I sometimes propose to adapt to the object end of the reflecting tube, a pair
of glass prisms, which, by decomposing the light whereby the image is seen, will
create very novel and pleasing effects.
For producing still greater variety, I sometimes mount the reflecting tube
in such a manner on the box as to admit of its being turned round on
its axis.
It will of course be understood that eye-pieces with suitable glasses may be
adapted to the instrument to suit different sights; and I sometimes find it
convenient to adapt prisms to the eye-piece end of the instrument, so that by
proper optical arrangements more than one person can see the object at the
same time. This object may also be effected by mounting the object vertically
in an illuminated chamber, and fixing round the same at suitable distances
apart any convenient number of reflecting tubes.
.
Slow rotary motion may be coinmunicated to the object, and, if desired, to
the reflecting tubes also, by hand or by mechanical means.