[f. Gr. καλ-ός beautiful + εἶδος form + -SCOPE. Named by its inventor, Sir David Brewster, in 1817.
Calidoscope in Newman, Gramm. Assent, I. v. (1870), 107.]
An optical instrument, consisting of from two to four reflecting surfaces placed in a tube, at one end of which is a small compartment containing pieces of colored glass: on looking through the tube, numerous reflections of these are seen, producing brightly colored symmetrical figures, which may be constantly altered by rotation of the instrument.
1817. Specif. Brewster’s patent No. 4136 (heading) A new optical instrument called the Kaleidoscope.
1818. Murray, Lett. to Byron, in Smiles, Mem. (1891), I. xvi. 398. I send you a very well-constructed Kaleidoscope, a newly-invented toy.
1822. J. Flint, Lett. fr. Amer., 20. The Kaleidoscope of Dr. Brewster is here fabricated in a rude style, and in quantities so great, that it is given as a plaything to children.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 62. The beautifully-symmetrical shapes seen in a common kaleidoscope.
b. fig. A constantly changing group of bright colors or colored objects; anything that exhibits a succession of shifting phases.
1819. Byron, Juan, II. xciii. This rainbow look’d like hope—Quite a celestial kaleidoscope.
1824. Macaulay, Misc. Writ., I. 82. The mind of Petrarch was a kaleidoscope.
1864. Pusey, Lect. Daniel, Pref. 29. To allow truth and falsehood to be jumbled together in one ever-shifting kaleidoscope of opinions.
1878. Hutton, Scott, i. 8. A hundred changing turns of the historical kaleidoscope.
c. attrib.
1834. Edin. Rev., LX. 69. The few kaleidoscope passages, where ambitious words and crowded figures are so richly embroidered in.
1855. Brimley, Ess., Noct. Ambr., 306. A kaleidoscope quickness and variety of intellect.
