History of the Kaleidoscope: From Brewster’s 1817 Patent to the Studio Instrument

Sep 28

5 min read

Updated: 3 days ago

The kaleidoscope is one of the few optical instruments whose inventor, patent number and launch date are all on record. What is less known is how quickly it escaped its inventor, how its object end changed over two centuries, and why the mirror geometry Brewster described is still the geometry used today.

Short answer: the kaleidoscope was invented by the Scottish physicist Sir David Brewster, who worked out its optics in 1815-1816 and received British patent No. 4136 on 10 July 1817. It became a mass craze within months, was widely copied, turned into a toy in the 20th century, and returned as a studio instrument from the 1970s onward.

Brass kaleidoscope 50th Anniversary Edition with three wheels, Studio Yabaye

Before Brewster: multiple reflection

Multiple reflection between angled mirrors was described long before 1817. Giambattista della Porta wrote about it in Magia Naturalis in the 16th century. Athanasius Kircher experimented with two mirrors set at various angles in 1646, and Richard Bradley described a similar construction in 1717. None of them fixed the mirrors inside a tube, set the angle by rule, and placed a changing object at the far end, which is what makes a kaleidoscope an instrument rather than a mirror trick.

Brewster’s instrument, 1815-1817

Brewster came to the kaleidoscope through his research on the polarisation of light. He noticed that two mirrors meeting at an angle that divides evenly into 360° produce a complete, symmetrical figure, and that the number of reflected segments follows directly from the angle: 360° divided by the angle. His patent of 10 July 1817 described a new optical instrument for exhibiting and creating beautiful forms and patterns, and specified mirror angles such as 18°, 20° and 22.5°.

He named it from three Greek words - kalos (beautiful), eidos (form) and skopeo (to look at) - and in 1819 published A Treatise on the Kaleidoscope in Edinburgh, setting out the optics, the construction and the uses he saw for it, including as a design tool for pattern makers.

The 1818 craze and the lost patent

The instrument sold faster than it could be protected. By contemporary estimates, around 200,000 kaleidoscopes were sold in London and Paris within three months of the patent, and Brewster himself estimated that only about a thousand of them were authorised copies. A flaw in the patent registration meant he could not stop other makers, and he earned little from an invention that sold in the hundreds of thousands.

The 19th-century parlour kaleidoscope

Through the 19th century the kaleidoscope grew from a hand-held tube into a table instrument. The best-documented American maker is Charles G. Bush, born in Prussia in 1825, who emigrated to the United States in 1847 and settled in Massachusetts. In 1873-1874 he patented a series of improvements: hermetically sealed, liquid-filled glass ampules for the object cell, a way to change the pieces without taking the cell apart, and a turned wooden stand. His instruments used a rotating spoked brass wheel to turn the object cell - an early form of the wheel mechanism found on many desk kaleidoscopes today.

The 20th century: toy, then studio instrument

For much of the 20th century the kaleidoscope was sold mainly as a toy, in cardboard or plastic, with back-surface mirrors and a loose-piece cell. From the 1970s, studio makers began to treat it again as an optical instrument and an art object. The collector and author Cozy Baker, who died in 2010, founded the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society, which has held conventions for artists and collectors since 1989. The teleidoscope - a kaleidoscope with a lens instead of an object cell - brought back an idea Brewster had already described: a telescopic kaleidoscope that turns whatever it is pointed at into pattern.

What changed in two centuries, and what did not

Element	1817	Studio instrument today
Mirror geometry	Angle rule: 360° divided by the mirror angle	The same rule, unchanged
Mirrors	Varied by maker	Front-surface (first-surface) mirrors in studio instruments
Object end	Loose pieces in a cell	Dry cells, oil cells, wheels, or a lens (teleidoscope)
Rotation	Turning the tube or the object cell	Wheels or cells on their own axle; friction-dampened rotation on some models
Body	Varied by maker	Brass tube, wood, glass; cardboard and plastic for toys

The geometry Brewster set down in 1817 is still the core of every kaleidoscope. What two centuries changed is the far end of the tube and the quality of the mirrors. For the full classification, see Types of Kaleidoscopes.

Where Studio Yabaye instruments sit in this history

Studio Yabaye builds on the two lines that run from Brewster and Bush: the three-mirror instrument with a rotating object end, and the lens instrument. Most models are three-mirror wheel kaleidoscopes on brass tube, such as the Architect’s Edition with a 10 cm wheel and the 50th Anniversary Edition with three wheels. The Brass Teleidoscope follows Brewster’s telescopic idea, with a lens in place of the cell. Each instrument is built in Israel from brass tube, cut, fitted and hand-finished, and signed by Rocco (Roi) Ramon, a licensed architect.

Frequently asked questions

Who invented the kaleidoscope?

Sir David Brewster, a Scottish physicist, while researching the polarisation of light. He received British patent No. 4136 for it on 10 July 1817.

When was the kaleidoscope invented?

Brewster worked out the optics in 1815-1816 and patented the instrument in 1817. His full account, A Treatise on the Kaleidoscope, was published in Edinburgh in 1819.

What does the word kaleidoscope mean?

It is built from three Greek words: kalos (beautiful), eidos (form) and skopeo (to look at). Brewster coined it: an instrument for looking at beautiful forms.

Did Brewster make money from the kaleidoscope?

Very little. A flaw in the patent registration allowed other makers to copy the instrument. By contemporary estimates about 200,000 were sold in London and Paris within three months, and Brewster estimated that only around a thousand of them were authorised.

What is a parlour kaleidoscope?

A large 19th-century table instrument on a stand, made for a sitting room rather than a pocket. Charles G. Bush of Massachusetts patented several improvements in 1873-1874, including sealed liquid-filled ampules in the object cell and a turned wooden stand.

Is the teleidoscope a newer invention?

The idea is Brewster’s: he described a telescopic kaleidoscope with a lens in place of the object cell. The teleidoscope is the modern form of that idea.

Sources: Brewster Kaleidoscope Society - Sir David Brewster; Brewster Kaleidoscope Society - Charles G. Bush; National Museum of American History - Kaleidoscope; D. Brewster, A Treatise on the Kaleidoscope, Edinburgh, 1819.