These versions were called ‘telescopic kaleidoscopes’, and are not commonly known today. He added means of rotating and interchanging the objects, which gave variability to the patterns, and, later, a draw tube and convex lens to allow viewing of external objects so that, as Brewster says, ‘the images of objects, of all magnitudes and at all distances, might be distinctly formed at the end of the reflectors, and introduced into the pictures created by the instrument in the same manner as if they had been reduced in size and placed in the true position of symmetry’ (1819, p 6). In A Treatise on the Kaleidoscope Brewster explains how he had first designed a version with permanently fixed coloured glasses, which was pleasing but produced no sustained interest. They were sold with and without object cells. As per our usual expectations of the instrument, a kaleidoscope could be fitted with an object cell (filled with coloured stones and fragments) to produce kaleidoscopic patterns or it could be fitted with a lens to view external objects, reflected into kaleidoscopic patterns. He was awarded a patent for the Kaleidoscope in 1817 and went into production soon after, with Carpenter acting as sole maker.Įarly kaleidoscopes are all similar in design, but may have two functions. Brewster claims to have invented the Kaleidoscope in 1814, having come across the idea of playing with inclined reflections during his research on polarisation ( 1819, p 1), although the kaleidoscopic principle had been known since at least 1710 ( Hecht, 1993, pp 72–73). The early models were much the same as the toy remains today consisting of a cylindrical tube fitted with inclined mirrors to reflect shapes into infinite patterns.
The Kaleidoscope was first released as a joint venture between Brewster and Carpenter in 1817. As we will see with the kaleidoscope, retailers exploited the respectability of scientific education to justify games and spectacles (by utilising optical principles to explain them), but, at the same time, they utilised the popular appeal of spectacle (and tricks, jokes, games, etc.) to propel scientific instruments into a popular market. These instruments were both amusement and instruction combined (these two terms continually crop up in literature and adverts), and it is this duplicity that best explains how the early media entertainments of the nineteenth century first emerged from the instrument makers’ workshops.
Drawing on an older conception of science as akin to wonderment ( Daston and Park, 2001), these toys presented magical spectacles that could shock or delight but through the supporting literature and surrounding marketing discourse, this magic was explained, so that the toy became an indicator of attained scientific knowledge. Optical toys were exciting because of their dual status as sources of spectacle and demonstrations of optics. There are many treatises and advertisements that praise the intellectual worth of these small mechanical trinkets. The optical toys themselves were also intended for a popular education market. Similarly, David Brewster’s A Treatise on Optics ( 1833 ) categorises different optical principles and suggests how these are exemplified by particular optical instruments.
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J R Paris’s Philosophy in Sport Made Science in Ernest ( 1831) taught scientific theory through the medium of children’s toys and games, and is intended as a useful manual to show tutors how to address different aspects of scientific education. There was much popular interest in science in the early nineteenth century, as shown by the many books intended to teach principles in entertaining or accessible ways. These toys may have been scaled-down versions of earlier scientific instruments, or newly invented devices that could be sold as intellectually stimulating.
Optical and philosophical toys were first integrated into the practice of the instrument maker and popular scientist as a means of demonstrating particular scientific principles. Philip Carpenter and the convergence of science and entertainment in the early-nineteenth century instrument trade The Kaleidoscope
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