Disassembled Kaleidoscope, 1818

Disassembled Kaleidoscope, 1818

Diagram of a disassembled kaleidoscope, 1818. Sir David Brewster, Scottish inventor and mathematician, began to work towards inventing the kaleidoscope in 1815 when he was conducting experiments on light polarization. It was patented in 1817. His initial design was a tube with pairs of mirrors at one end, pairs of translucent disks at the other, and beads between the two. Brewster chose achromatic lens developer Philip Carpenter as the sole manufacturer of the kaleidoscope in 1817. It proved to be a massive success, with two hundred thousand kaleidoscopes sold in London and Paris in just three months. Realizing that the company could not meet this level of demand, Brewster requested permission from Carpenter on 17 May 1818 for the device to be made by other manufacturers, to which he agreed. Initially intended as a scientific tool, the kaleidoscope was later copied as a toy.

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3661 x 2699 px | 28.3 MB

31.0 x 22.9 cm | 12.2 x 9.0 in (300 dpi)