K A L 



*4I2 



K A TV! 



The propositions in I Farri.-' Optics relate, like Pro- 

 fessor Wood"*, merely to the multiplication and circular 

 arrangement of the apertures or sectors formed by the 

 inclined mim.r.-. anil to the progress of a ray of light 

 reflected between two inclined or parallel mirrors ; and 

 no allusion whatever is made, in the propositions them- 

 selves to any instrument. In the proposition respect- 

 ing the multiplication of the sectors, the eye of the ob- 

 server is never once mentioned, and the proposition is 

 true if the eye has an infinite number of positions ; 

 whereas, in die kaleidoscope, the eye can only have one 

 position. In the other proposition, (Prop. XVII.) re- 

 specting the progress of the rays, the eye and the object 

 are actually .stated to be placed between the reflectors; 

 and even if the eye had been placed without the re- 

 flectors, as in the kaleidoscope,, the position assigned it, 

 at a great distance from the -angular p^oint, is a demon- 

 jstration that Harris was entirely ignorant of the posi- 

 tions nf symmetry either for the dbjecl or the eye, and 

 could not have combined two reflectors so as to form a 

 kaleidoscope for producing beautiful or symmetrical 

 forms. The only practical part of Harris' propositions 

 is the 5th and 6th scholia to Prop. XVII. In the 5th 

 scholium he proposes a sort of catoptric box or cistula, 

 known long before his time, composed of four mirrors, 

 arranged in a most unscientific manner, and containing 

 opaque objects between the speculums. " Whatever they 

 are," says he, when speaking of the objects, " the up- 

 right figures between the speculums should be slender, 

 and not too many in number, otherwise they will too 

 much obstruct the rejtected rai/sjrom coming to the eye." 

 This shews, in a most decisive manner, that Harris 

 knew nothing of the kaleidoscope, and that he has not 

 even improved the common catoptric cistula, which had 

 been known long before. The principle of inversion, 

 and the positions of symmetry, were entirely unknown 

 to him. In the 6th scholium, he speaks of rooms lined 

 with looking-glasses, and of luminous amphitheatres, 

 which have been described and figured by all the old 

 writers on optics*. 



The persons who have pretended to compare Dr. 

 Brewster's kaleidoscope with the combinations of plain 

 mirrors described by preceding authors, have not only 

 been utterly unacquainted with the principles of optics, 

 but have not been at the trouble either of understand- 

 ing the principles on which the patent kaleidoscope is 

 constructed, or of examining the construction of the in- 

 strument itself. Because it contains two plain mirrors, 

 they infer that it must be the same as every other in- 

 strument that contains two plain mirrors, and hence 

 the same persons would, by a similar process of reason- 

 ing, have concluded that a telescope is a microscope, or 

 that a pair of spectacles with a double lens is the same 

 as a telescope or a microscope, because all these instru- 

 ments contain two lenses. An astronomical telescope 

 differs from a compound microscope only in having the 

 lenses placed at different distances. The progress of 

 the rays is exactly the same in both these instruments, 

 and the effect in both is produced by the enlargement 

 of the angle subtended by the object. Yet surely there 

 is no person so senseless as to deny that he who first 

 combined two lenses in such a manner as to discover 

 the mountains of the moon, the satellites of Jupiter and 

 Saturn, and all the wonders of the system of the uni- 

 verse, was the author of an original invention. He who 

 produces effects which were never produced before, 

 even by means which have been long known, is unques- 



tionably an original inventor ; and upon this principle Kalendw 

 alone can the telescope be considered as arr invention 

 different from the microscope. In the ase of the ka- 

 leidoscope, the originality of the invention is far more 

 striking. Every person admits that effects are produ- 

 ced by Dr. Brewster's instrument, of which no concep- 

 tion could have been previously formed. All those 

 who saw it, acknowledged that they had never seen 

 any thing resembling it before ; anil those very persons 

 who had been possessors of Bradley's instrument, who 

 had read Harris' Optics, and made his shew boxes, 

 and who had used other combinations of plain mirrors, 

 never supposed for a moment, that the pleasure which 

 they had derived from the kaleidoscope hacl any rela- 

 tion to the effects described by these authors. 



No proof of the originality of the kaleidoscope could 

 be stronger than the sensation which it excited in Lon- 

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

 and no work, whether addressed to the imagination or 

 to 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 ignorant 

 to the most learned, and every person not only felt, but 

 expressed the feeling, that a new pleasure had been 

 added to their existence. 



If such an instrument had ever been known before, 

 a similar sensation must have been excited, and it would 

 not have been left to the ingenuity of the half learned and 

 the half honest to search for the skeleton of the inven- 

 tion among the rubbish of the 16'th and 17th centuries. 

 The patent kaleidoscopes are now made in London, 

 under the sanction of the Patentee, by Messrs. P. and 

 G. Dollond, W. and S. Jones, Mr. R. B. Bate, Messrs. 

 Thomas Harris and Son, Messrs. W. and T. Gilbert, 

 Mr. Bancks, Mr. Berge, Mr. Thomas Jones, Mr. Blunt, 

 Mr. Schmalcalder, Messrs. Watkins and Hill, and Mr. 

 Smith. In Birmingham by Mr. Philip Carpenter ; in 

 Bristol by Mr. Beilby ; and in Edinburgh by Mr. John 

 Ruthven. An account of the different forms in which 

 these ingenious opticians have fitted up the kaleidoscope, 

 and of the new contrivances by which they have given 

 it additional value, will be published in Dr. Brewster's 

 Treatise on the Kaleidoscope, now in the press. 

 KALENDAR. See CHRONOLOGY, vol. vi. p. 405. 

 KALIF. See CALIPH, vol. r. p. 261. 

 KAMMA. See RUSSIA. 



KAMMENI, the Great and Little, or Burnt Islands, 

 are two islands in the Grecian Archipelago, which de- 

 rive their name from their calcined appearance. The 

 first of these, or the Great Kammeni, was called Kiera 

 by the ancients. In the year 1 473, another island sud- 

 denly appeared above the sea, and was distinguished 

 by the name of the Micri Kammeni. On the 23d of 

 May, 1 707, a new islet appeared about a league from 

 Santorin, between the Great and the Little Kammeni ; 

 and as a very particular account of this remarkable 

 phenomenon has been given by an eye-witness, we 

 shall not scruple to lay an abridged account of it before 

 our readers. 



" On the 18th of May, there had been felt at San- 

 torin two slight shocks of an earthquake. No great at- 

 tention was paid to them at the time ; but there was 

 reason to suppose that the new islet was beginning to 

 detach itself from the bottom of the sea, and to rise to- 

 wards its surface. Some Greeks belonging to Santorin 

 having seen the first points of the growing island, ima- 

 gined that these might be the remains of some ship- 



The reader is requested to examine carefully the propositions in Harris' Optics ; he will then be convinced, that Harris placed both 

 he eye and the object between the miirors, an arrangement which Wits known 100 yeats before his time. 



