294 



KALCKREUTH KALEIDOSCOPE. 



pscuped detection. He then went to Canada, where 

 l.r ivmiiined until its conquest by the British, after 

 which he returned to France. In 1777, during the 

 war of the revolution, he came a second time to the 

 I'nited States, and offered his services to congress. 

 They were accepted, and he was soon after made a 

 major-general. At first he was placed in the north- 

 mi army, but when the danger which threatened 

 Charleston from the formidable expedition under Sir 

 Henry Clinton, in 1778, rendered it necessary to rein- 

 force the American troops in the south, a detachment 

 was sent to them, consisting of the Maryland and 

 Delaware lines, which were put under his command. 

 Before he could arrive, however, at the scene of 

 action, general Lincoln had been made prisoner, and 

 the direction of the whole southern army in conse- 

 quence devolved upon the baron, until the appoint- 

 ment of general Gates. Aug. 15, Gates was defeat- 

 ed near Camden by lord Rawdon, and, in the battle, 

 baron de Kalb, who commanded the right wing, fell, 

 covered with wounds, while gallantly fighting on foot. 

 A tomb was erected to his memory, by order of con- 

 gress, in the cemetery of Camden. 



KALCKREUTH, FREDERIC ADOLPHUS, count of, 

 Prussian field- marshal, born at Eisleben, in 1737, 

 entered the army in 1751. In the seven years' war, 

 he served with distinction as aid of prince Henry, 

 ascended, step by step, to the office of general, and 

 was made a count in 1788. In the war with France, 

 he manifested equal courage and ability. In 1793, 

 he took Mayence. He contributed essentially to the 

 victory of Mollendorf at Kaiserslautern, May 23, 

 1794. He soon after drove the French from Deux 

 Fonts, and pressed forward to Saar Louis. Towards 

 the end of 1795, he received the chief command of 

 the troops in Pomerania, and, in May, 1806, was ap- 

 pointed governor of Thorn and Dantzic, and inspec- 

 tor-general of the cavalry. In the autumn, he joined 

 the main army in Thuringia, but took no part in the 

 battle of Jena and Auerstadt, being stationed in the 

 rear. June 25, 1807, he concluded with Berthier, at 

 Tilsit, the truce between Prussia and France, after 

 which, in conjunction with Golz, he concluded a peace 

 with Talleyrand. He was immediately after ap- 

 pointed field-marshal. In January, 1810, the king 

 appointed him governor of Berlin. In the last war, 

 count Kalckreuth was governor of Breslau, and re- 

 turned to Berlin in 1814, where he entered anew 

 upon the government, and died in 1818. He was a 

 man of rare qualities of mind and heart. 



KALEIDOSCOPE ; an instrument for creating 

 and exhibiting an infinite variety of beautiful forms, 

 pleasing the eye by an ever-varying succession of 

 splendid tints and symmetrical forms, and enabling 

 the observer to render permanent such as may appear 

 appropriate for any branch of the ornamental arts. 

 This instrument the invention of doctor Brewster, in 

 its most common form, consists of a tin tube, con- 

 taining two reflecting surfaces inclined to each other, 

 at any angle which is an aliquot part of 360 The 

 reflecting surfaces may be two plates of glass, plain 

 or quicksilvered, or two metallic surfaces, from which 

 the light suffers total reflection. The plates should 

 vary in length, according to the focal distance of the 

 ?ye : five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten inches, will, in 

 general, be most convenient; or they may be made only 

 one, two, three or four inches long, provided distinct 

 'ision is obtained at one end, by placing at the other 

 an eye-glass, whose focal length is equal to the length 

 of the reflecting planes. The inclination of the re- 

 Hector that is in general most pleasing is 18, 20, 

 or 22i, or the 20th, 18th and 16th part of a circle ; 

 but the planes may be set at any required angle, 

 either by a metallic, a paper, or cloth pint, or any 

 other simple contrivance. When the two planes are 



put together, with their straightest and smoothest 

 edge in contact, they will have the form shown in 

 figure 1, where A U C is the aperture or angle formed 

 by the plates. In this figure the plates are rectangu- 

 lar ; but it may often be more convenient to give 

 them the triangular form, shown at N figure 2, or M 

 fig ire 3: 



Fig 2. 



When the instrument is thus constructed, it may be 

 either covered up with paper or leather, or placed in 

 a cylindrical, or any other tube, so that the aperture 

 ABC may be left completely open, and also a small 

 aperture at the angular point D. If the eye is now 

 placed at D, and looks through the aperture ABC, 

 it will perceive a brilliant circle of light, divided into 

 as many sectors as the number of times that the 

 angle of the reflectors is contained in 360. If this 

 angle is 18, the number of sectors will be 20 ; and, 

 whatever be the form of the aperture ABC, the 

 luminous space seen through the instrument will be 

 a figure produced by the arrangement of 20 of 

 these apertures round C as a centre, in consequence 

 of the successive reflections between the polished 

 surfaces. Hence it follows, that, if any object, how- 

 ever ugly or irregular in itself, is placed before the 

 aperture ABC, the part of it that can be seen 

 through the aperture will be seen also in every sec- 

 tor, and every image of the object will coalesce into 

 a form mathematically symmetrical, and highly pleas- 

 ing to the eye. If the object be put in motion, the 

 combination of images will likewise be put in mo- 

 tion, and new forms, perfectly different, but equally 

 symmetrical, will successively present themselves, 

 sometimes vanishing in the centre, sometimes emerg- 

 ing from it, and sometimes playing around in double 

 and opposite oscillations. When the object is tinged 

 with different colours, the most beautiful tints are 

 developed in succession, and the whole figure delights 

 the eye by the perfection of its forms and the bril- 

 liancy of its colouring. The eye-glass placed im- 

 mediately against the end of the mirrors, its well as 

 another glass similarly situated at the other end, are 

 of common transparent glass. The tube is continued 

 a little beyond this second glass, and, at its termina- 

 tion, is closed by a ground glass, which can be put 

 on and off. In the vacant space thus formed, beads, 

 pieces of coloured glass, and other small, bright ob- 

 jects, are put. The changes produced in their posi- 

 tion by turning the tube, give rise to the different 

 figures. 



Such is the construction of the single kaleidoscope, 

 but various other forms have been given to it by the 

 inventor. The polycentral kaleidoscope, consists of 

 three or more mirrors, introduced into the tube, so as 

 to form a prism of three or more sides. But there is 

 a limit to the number of sides, for symmetrical images 

 cannot be formed, if the mirrors be inclined to one 

 anotiier, at a greater angle than 90". Hence, no 



