Search results for "David Brewster"

Combination of simple mirrors – childish game or useful tool?

2015

International audience; The Scottish inventor of the kaleidoscope, Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), examined references to previous combinations of mirrors in his defense of his own invention, The Kaleidoscope, Its History, Theory and Construction (1858). Sir David Brewster who was eager to prove that his invention, dating back to 1816, was genuinely innovative, dismissed the use of what he called “combinations of plane mirrors” as productive of “poor effect”. His examination of the mirror devices described in the works of Gianbattista della Porta (1535-1615) Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) and Richard Bradley (1688-1732), led him to the conclusion that they could hardly have been the result …