One of the old, odd and curious devices children had in the 1970's (not just then, but that's when I had one) is the kaleidoscope. I have no idea where mine ended up. It was a cardboard tube with plastic beads inside the end. As you turned the tube the beads rolled around and created different patterns when you looked through the lens at the top. I think it would be related to those keyhole/ pinhole cameras. Do I have that name right? I read about them years ago.

I've seen some variations in kaleidoscope styles. Some have little gems inside, instead of beads, or something else entirely. The one I would have like to buy (and try) was a natural DIY kaleidoscope which you could put anything flat enough to fit in and view it. The ad showed flowers, bits of leaves and other things found outside. Not rocks mostly likely, they would scratch it and be too large to fit. I found several of this kind on Amazon and elsewhere but none were shipped from Canada, or at least from Amazon itself. Also, I thought they should have a nicer wood and finish. They look a bit too cheap, as they are.

Amazon kaleidoscope link.

Vintage kaleidoscopes had interchangeable gears/wheels/discs to switch out. Others I found had a glass marble at the end of the tube, some were able to change those too. Yet more are artsy and individual looking, and even more expensive. What really matters is what you see when you look through.

I want lots of colours and different shapes. A few only had black and white, which was interesting but not as pretty. More colours and, of course, more shapes, will give the kaleidoscope more patterns. If you have one, try to turn the scope just a tiny bit and what the colours and shapes twitch just the least little bit. I would try to keep an eye on one particular bead and follow it.

Life is like a kaleidoscope, a slight change and all patterns alter.

The Brewster Kaleidoscope Society

Kaleidoscope from Wikipedia:

A kaleidoscope (/kəˈlaɪdəskoʊp/) is an optical instrument with two or more reflecting surfaces (or mirrors) tilted to each other at an angle, so that one or more (parts of) objects on one end of these mirrors are shown as a symmetrical pattern when viewed from the other end, due to repeated reflection. These reflectors are often enclosed in a tube, usually containing on one end a cell with loose, colored pieces of glass or other transparent (and/or opaque) materials to be reflected into the viewed pattern. Rotation of the cell causes motion of the materials, resulting in an ever-changing view being presented.

History

Multiple reflection by two or more reflecting surfaces has been known since antiquity and was described as such by Giambattista della Porta in his Magia Naturalis (1558–1589). In 1646, Athanasius Kircher described an experiment with a construction of two mirrors, which could be opened and closed like a book and positioned in various angles, showing regular polygon figures consisting of reflected aliquot sectors of 360°. Richard Bradley's New Improvements in Planting and Gardening (1717) described a similar construction to be placed on geometrical drawings to show an image with multiplied reflection. However, an optimal configuration that produces the full effects of the kaleidoscope was not recorded before 1815.

In 1814, Sir David Brewster conducted experiments on light polarization by successive reflections between plates of glass and first noted "the circular arrangement of the images of a candle round a center, and the multiplication of the sectors formed by the extremities of the plates of glass". He forgot about it, but noticed a more impressive version of the effect during further experiments in February 1815. A while later, he was impressed by the multiplied reflection of a bit of cement that was pressed through at the end of a triangular glass trough, which appeared more regular and almost perfectly symmetrical in comparison to the reflected objects that had been situated further away from the reflecting plates in earlier experiments. This triggered more experiments to find the conditions for the most beautiful and symmetrically perfect conditions. An early version had pieces of colored glass and other irregular objects fixed permanently and was admired by some Members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, including Sir George Mackenzie who predicted its popularity. A version followed in which some of the objects and pieces of glass could move when the tube was rotated. The last step, regarded as most important by Brewster, was to place the reflecting panes in a draw tube with a concave lens to distinctly introduce surrounding objects into the reflected pattern.

Brewster thought his instrument to be of great value in "all the ornamental arts" as a device that creates an "infinity of patterns". Artists could accurately delineate the produced figures of the kaleidoscope by means of the solar microscope (a type of camera obscura device), magic lantern or camera lucida. Brewster believed it would at the same time become a popular instrument "for the purposes of rational amusement". He decided to apply for a patent. British patent no. 4136 "for a new Optical Instrument called "The Kaleidoscope" for exhibiting and creating beautiful Forms and Patterns of great use in all the ornamental Arts" was granted in July 1817. Unfortunately, the manufacturer originally engaged to produce the product had shown one of the patent instruments to London opticians to see if he could get orders from them. Soon the instrument was copied and marketed before the manufacturer had prepared any number of kaleidoscopes for sale. An estimated two hundred thousand kaleidoscopes sold in London and Paris in just three months. Brewster figured at most a thousand of these were authorized copies that were constructed correctly, while the majority of the others did not give a correct impression of his invention. Because so relatively few people had experienced a proper kaleidoscope or knew how to apply it to ornamental arts, he decided to publicize a treatise on the principles and the correct construction of the kaleidoscope.

More than you wanted to know, but its still interesting to read. The Wikipedia link has more.

Instructables has a fancy kaleidoscope to make. Not one of the simpler cardboard types.

I wonder if there is some kind of digital kaleidoscope? A software program. I didn't look for one, but I'd be surprised not to find something like that.

What, or who, were the giants, old or prehistoric skeletons found, which are at least seven feet tall? I've heard they were redheaded or blonde and described as white/ pale skinned by the native Indians who encountered them in their history.

Could they have been Vikings, certainly we know Vikings did make it to (what is now) Newfoundland in Canada. Or, could they have been Neanderthals? They were also known to be taller than average people and have red hair. Could they have been here before the native Indians and could the people we call native Indians now have caused their extinction? People have found many of the Indian mounds to have skeletons and bones from taller than average people, giants.

Could the burial mounds have been created to dispose of remains and items after a battle with these giant people? I don't see why they would need to hide the evidence, but who knows what was going on hundreds of years ago. We can only speculate. Still, what else would they have done with bodies after a battle? Dumping dirt over them would have prevented predators and scavengers (animals) from gathering and maybe attacking the people in the area. There are good reasons for burying bodies, especially if there were several of them.

Some of the skeletons have been found to be much older than the people we think of as our ancestors, or those we call native to North America. Also, early explorers to North America have reported seeing and dealing with giants. I've read about giants from around the world but I especially would like to know about those who might have been right here in Ontario. When, and how did they get here and what happened to them? How did they live, what was their culture and technology? Are we related to them, some of us? Has anyone looked into what might be left from them in our modern DNA? They have researched this for Neanderthals, has anyone found DNA for giants to research this? Or, would it be the same DNA as the Neanderthals. It would be nice to know they were here, maybe survived as ancestors for people still around.

I think there is too much interesting evidence to call this a myth. But, there are so many great theories about who these giants may have been.

Research and evidence about giants has been hampered by religion and science. Proof of giants messes with accepted theories about evolution, either side for or against the theory. But, maybe they are just a missing link, or a part of history we haven't found enough proof to validate them enough to give them acceptance and further research. One problem are the Indian mounds themselves, they are not allowed to be excavated any longer.

But, what I wanted to know - Do we have evidence of giants found here in Ontario?

A few years ago an article appeared in the Toronto Telegraph stating that in the township of Cayuga in the Grand River, on the farm of Daniel Fredenburg, five or six feet below the surface, were found two hundred skeletons nearly perfect, nine foot tall in a string of beads around the neck of each, stone pipes in the jaws of several of them, and many stone axes and skinners scattered around in the dirt. The skeletons were gigantic, some of them measuring nine feet, and few of them less than seven.

Some of the thigh bones were six inches longer that any now known. The farm had been cultivated a century and was originally covered with a growth of pine. There was evidence from the crushed bones that a battled had been fought and these were some of the slain… Were these the remains of Indians or some other race? Who filled this ghastly pit?

“On Wednesday last, Rev. Nathaniel Wardell, Messers. Orin Wardell (of Toronto), and Daniel Fredenburg, were digging on the farm of the latter gentleman, which is on the banks of the Grand River, in the township of Cayuga.

When they got to five or six feet below the surface, a strange sight met them. Piled in layers, one upon top of the other, some two hundred skeletons of human beings nearly perfect — around the neck of each one being a string of beads.

“There were also deposited in this pit a number of axes and skimmers made of stone. In the jaws of several of the skeletons were large stone pipes — one of which Mr. O. Wardell took with him to Toronto a day or two after this Golgotha was unearthed.”

These skeletons are those of men of gigantic stature, some of them measuring nine feet, very few of them being less than seven feet.

Some of the thigh bones were found to be at least a foot longer than those at present known, and one of the skulls being examined completely covered the head of an ordinary person.

These skeletons are supposed to belong to those of a race of people anterior to the Indians.

“Some three years ago, the bones of a mastodon were found embedded in the earth about six miles from this spot. The pit and its ghastly occupants are now open to the view of any who may wish to make a visit there.

“Later: Dunnville, August 22,

“There is not the slightest doubt that the remains of a lost city are on this farm. At various times within the past years, the remains of mud houses with their chimneys had been found: and there are dozens of pits of a similar kind to that just unearthed, though much smaller, in the place which has been discovered before, though the fact has not been made public hitherto.

The remains of a blacksmith’s shop, containing two tons of charcoal and various implements, were turned up a few months ago.

“The farm, which consists of 150 acres, has been cultivated for nearly a century, and was covered with a thick growth of pine, so that it must have been ages ago since the remains were deposited there.

The skulls of the skeletons are of an enormous size and all manner of shapes, about half as large again as are now to be seen.

The teeth in most of them are still in almost perfect state of preservation, though they soon fall out when exposed to the air.

“It is supposed that there is gold or silver in large quantities to be found in the premises, as mineral rods have invariably, when tested, pointed to a certain spot and a few yards from where the last batch of skeletons was found directly under the apple tree.

Some large shells, supposed to have been used for holding water, which were also found in the pit, were almost petrified. There is no doubt that were a scheme of exploration carried on thoroughly the result would be highly interesting.

A good deal of excitement exists in the neighborhood, and many visitors call at the farm daily.

“The skulls and bones of the giants are fast disappearing, being taken away by curiosity hunters. It is the intention of Mr. Fredinburg to cover the pit up very soon. The pit is ghastly in the extreme.

The farm is skirted on the north by the Grand River. The pit is close to the banks, but marks are there to show where the gold or silver treasure is supposed to be under.

From the appearance of the skulls, it would seem that their possessors died a violent death, as many of them were broken and dented.

“The axes are shaped like tomahawks, small, but keen, instruments. The beads are all of stone and of all sizes and shapes. The pipes are not unlike in shape the cutty pipe, and several of them are engraved with dogs’ heads. They have not lost their virtue for smoking.

Some people profess to believe that the locality of Fredinburg farm was formally an Indian burial place, but the enormous stature of the skeletons and the fact that pine trees of centuries growth covered the spot goes far to disprove this idea.

Source - ”Ancient American Volume 6, Issue 41, p. 9. Researched and submitted by Benoit Crevier. Originally published in The Daily Telegraph (Toronto, Ontario), Wednesday, August 23, 1871, page 1.

Source - Greater Ancestors World Museum - 200 seven to nine foot tall Skeletons Cayuga Canada

I found this right away when I looked for giant skeletons in Ontario. Then the search drifted into Halloween costumes, etc. So I will see if I can find more and post about it later.