kaleidograph

Noun

kaleidograph (plural kaleidographs)

1. A late 19th or early 20th century device for duplicating documents that use colored ink, consisting of a tray with a rubbery substance that takes an impression of the document and then transfers it onto blank sheets of paper.
   • The Kaleidograph is claimed to be the only apparatus of the kind adapted for use in all temperatures from 20⁰ to 90⁰.1880, Bankers Magazine - Volume 34, page 206
   • Some of the larger additions to the equipment have been for the school; two pianos, six typewriters, five kaleidographs, one stereograph, one embossed globe, twenty-four new desks, more than five hundred books for the library, numerous tables for study room, etc.;1902, Colorado. Dept. of Education, Biennial Report - Issue 13, page 500
2. A device for projecting the colorful patterns produced by a kaleidoscope.
   • Electrical experiments were provided by Mr J. P. Capon, who had a powerful battery at work, and the kaleidograph, lent by Mr. G. Nash, was a never-ceasing source of fascination.1874, Brighton and Hove Natural History and Philosophical Society, Abstracts of Papers Read Before the Society, page 80
   • By means of a device, known as a kaleidograph, the patterns thus formed may be thrown on a screen or a glass.1912, Harry Thurston Peck, The Standard Illustrated Book of Facts, page 461
3. (figuratively) A changing visual display.
   • Swayed by the kaleidograph of inner suggestion primitive tribes abandon themselves hour after hour to the festal chants until the performers reach the point of fatigue,1911, Alastair St. Clair Mackenzie, The evolution of literature, page 268