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Kaleidophone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kaleidophone on display at Palais de la Découverte in Paris.

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

History

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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

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  1. ^ https://people.seas.harvard.edu/~jones/cscie129/papers/koenig_apparatus/Kaleidophone/Kaleidophone.html [dead link]
  2. ^ "Kaleidophone".
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