192 HEROES OF INVENTION AND DISCO VER Y. 



mcnt remained yet to be made, and it was not till some time 

 aftenvards that the idea occurred to the inventor oi giving motion 

 to objects, such as pieces of coloured glass, &c., which were placed 

 loosely in a cell at the end of the instrument. When this idea 

 was carried into execution, the kaleidoscope in its simple form 

 was completed. 



The next, and by far the most important step of the inven- 

 tion, was to employ a draw-tube and lens, by means of which 

 beautiful forms could be created from objects of all sizes, and 

 at all distances from the observer. In this way the power of 

 the kaleidoscope was indefinitely extended, and every object 

 in nature could be introduced into the picture, in the same 

 manner as if these objects had been reduced in size, and 

 actually placed at the end of the reflectors. 



The kalcidoscoi)e being now completed, Brewster was urged 

 by his friends to secure the exclusive property of it. After 

 the patent was signed, and the instruments in a state of for- 

 wardness, the gentleman who was employed to manufacture 

 them under the patent, carried one to show to the principal 

 London opticians, for the purpose of taking orders for them. 

 These gentlemen naturally made one for their own use and 

 the amusement of their own friends ; and the character of the 

 instruments being thus made public, the manufacture extended 

 to tinmen and glaziers ; and kaleidoscopes were soon hawked 

 about the streets of London at all prices, some even as low as 

 a shilling. No proof of the originality of the kaleidoscope could 

 be stronger than the sensation which it created in London and 

 Paris. In the memory of man, no invention and no work, 

 whether addressed to the imagination or the understanding, ever 

 produced such an effect. A universal mania for the instrument 

 seized all classes, from the lowest to the highest, from the most 



