“To view beautiful forms” Greek words, kalos or beautiful, eidos or form, and scopes or see.
The word kaleidoscope comes from the Greek: kalos (beautiful), eidos (form), and skopeō (to see) — “to view beautiful forms.” Few inventions have captured both wonder and science as gracefully as this simple play of mirrors.
The kaleidoscope as we know it was first designed in 1816 by Sir David Brewster, a Scottish physicist, mathematician, and passionate explorer of light. While experimenting with polarised light, he discovered how angled mirrors could transform scattered fragments into infinite, symmetrical patterns. His “philosophical toy” quickly spread across Europe and America, delighting artists, scientists, and dreamers alike.
From parlour entertainment in the 1800s, to tools for designers and jewelers, to modern-day instruments of meditation and healing — the kaleidoscope has continued to evolve. Today, kaleidoscope makers and artists around the world carry Brewster’s legacy forward, keeping alive a tradition of beauty, play, and perception.
This page traces both the invention itself and my own journey with kaleidoscopes — from building my first projector in 1995, to exploring light as a medium for healing and reflection.
👉 Scroll down to explore the full story: from Brewster’s original experiments to contemporary kaleidoscope artistry, and how this living invention became part of my own path.
“Although every part of the human frame has been fashioned by the same Divine hand and exhibits the most marvelous and beneficent adaptations for the use of men, the human eye stands pre-eminent above them all as the light of the body and the organ by which we become acquainted with the minuets and the nearest, the largest and most remote of the Creator’s work.” – Sir David Brewster
Kaleidoscope History and its Inventor
“The apparent simplicity, both of the theory and the construction of the kaleidoscope, has deceived very well-meaning persons into the belief that they understood its modes of operation; and it was only to see that possesses more than a moderate share of optical knowledge, who say that it was not only more difficult to understand, but also more difficult to execute, than most of the philosophical instruments now in use.” – Sir David Brewster. The Kaleidoscope:
Its History, Theory & construction.” 1858
No one knows exactly how far they date back, but it is well know that reflective surfaces were used as far back as the Ancient Egyptians. David Brewster in his book The kaleidoscope, published in 1858 describes how he came about this invention while working on polarised light back in 1815. At the end of his book he makes reference to the following book called Magia Naturalis by Johannes Baptista della Porta, 1715 , who experimented with angled mirrors of up to 10 mirrors used to produce a mirror box. Then came Kirscher’s, Ars magna lcis et ,umbra,then came. Brewster’s Kaleidoscopes are further mentioned in Bradley’s Treatise on Planting and Gardening. Harris’s Treatise on Optics. Wood’s Optics. Dr. Roget on the kaleidoscope, in the Annals of Philosophy, vol.xi also mentions The Brewster kaleidoscope. Dr. Roget; and the comet Renu de Travaux de L’Academie de Dijon, pour 1818,pp. 108-117
The Kaleidoscope was invented as an “optical instrument” in 1816 by Sir David Brewster, a Scotsmen who trained as a clergyman, physicist, mathematician, astronomer, inventor, writer and historian of science and university principal. He was considered the greatest living experimental physicist in his time, yet was largely self-taught and born of humble means. He learned science as a teen from James Veitch, an ordinary plowman who had taught himself astronomy, mathematics and philosophy and had garnered a notable following from his inventions. For decades, Brewster designed his experiments using simple throwaway items like bottles and pieces of wire.
His was most noted for his contributions to the field of optics, he studied the double refraction by compression and discovered the photoelastic effect, which gave birth to the field of optical mineralogy. For his work, William Whewell dubbed him the “Father of modern experimental optics” and “the Johannes Kepler of Optics.”
Besides being the inventor of the kaleidoscope and an improved version of the stereoscope applied to photography. He called it the “lenticular stereoscope”, which was the first portable, 3D viewing device. He also invented the binocular camera, two types of polarimeters which was the polyzonal lens and the lighthouse illuminator, but is real passion was Natural Science with a special love for Optical Science.
The Kaleidoscope was such a hit when Brewster first showed it off at to his local scientific community that word of it spread quickly and it was due to the lack of patent coverage to secure the rights of this invention that the profits did not go to Brewster. It did not take long to find a permanent niche in the 19th century with hundreds of such kaleidoscopes been made. For adults in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s Kaleidoscopes became what was known as a “parlour scope”. Charles Bush was granted various patents in 1873 and 1874 related to improvements in kaleidoscopes, kaleidoscope boxes, objects for kaleidoscopes (US 143,271) These parlour scopes were created as after dinner entertainment for those wishing to retire to the sitting room and later kaleidoscopes became known as The greatest philosophical toy.
Filling a much-needed and appreciated tool for the design palettes of artists, jewelers, architects, weavers, and any profession in which symmetrical and ornamental patterns were required. Charles Bush was the first person to mass produce kaleidoscopes in the West mainly in America. Today kaleidoscopes are mass produced by china but with sloppy interiors, they have lost their true beauty and intention. There are however real amazing kaleidoscope artist namely Cozy Baker to name one who started to make kaleidoscopes as a way to mourned the death of her son who passed away tragically in 1985. They became a medium of inspiration, harmony, bereavement and a whole culture of ‘lovers of beauty’ was formed in the Brewster Society, where artists and crafters could show case there unique pieces every year at the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society, held at a different venue around the world.
Now consisting of more than 800 registered kaleidoscope artists with the Brewster Society, the underlying rule with each artist is like a law, that says no one copies the other in design.
Many now they are used by health professionals from dentists to teachers to help in restoring balance, through meditation. They are used as corporate gifts, gifts for all occasions and the magic of this little invention is shared daily with thousands of people worldwide.
My history with kaleidoscopes
I made my first kaleidoscope in 1991. My friend Turid Bergstedt and I shared a house where my father was storing his workshop in the garage. She mentioned one day that she has seen one of these mirrored prisms and had I seen one. Which I had not, I followed up with I’m sure we can make one. My father had been involved in the glass industry all his adult life, and I remember going with him to the glass factory warehouses and watched them cut huge sheets of glass with a small running blade. I remember teaching Turid to cut mirror and how to cut out a glass circle. In the 1980’s I made a 8m high glass house pyramid with a meter base as part of my interior decorating course that we had to decorate the interior making miniature glass furniture to fill my glass pyramid house. So working with glass came easily to me. all various styles, variations’, coverings, sizes, materials and for all sorts of uses.
We put our first kaleidoscope projector together in 1995 after having spent three years working out the optics involved in this construction. I t came to me in one brilliant flash, I could see how to project the image. It was not long after that we put our first projector together in an old cardboard box and it worked to the delight of us all. We hosted our first kaleidoscope viewing in the small village of Philadelphia in the Western Cape.
Turid perfected the projector design back in 2002 and I spent the next 3 years working with the kaleidoscope projector on myself and on friends and family doing experiments with colour’s and patterns and developed a healing modality based on over 12 colour therapists colour theory.Today we both continue making kaleidoscopes and projectors, all sizes, shapes and styles.