4.12.2014

The Kaleidoscope: fun for all ages



Inspired by one. 

Inset Kaleidoscope by Lucy



























That's all it takes for The Children's School to break out the box of vintage optical toys! Perfect timing with our spring sunshine. Here's a few of our gems and their fantastic explosions of color...

1960's ZOOSCOPE made in England























Vintage Optical Viewer, with changeable color lenses, made in Japan
by よしにのかかく














1960's Kaleidoscope made by Galt Toys in England















The Karascope:
"The Karascope creates an optical fantasy in a tube by polarizing, refracting and reflecting light. There is no colored glass in the Karascope, only the spectral colors of light itself.
Ordinary white light which vibrates in all directions is polarized along one plane when it passes through the base of the tube. The light then enters clear, colorless pieces of birefringent material and is reorganized by the eyepiece to produce the startling colors that you see. The patterns, unlike those in a kaleidoscope, are asymmetrical.






Hold the Karascope toward the light, rotate the base, and the image changes. A twist of the eyepiece alters the colors of the image and causes the pattern to swirl to or from the eye. The spectrum also shifts as the Karascope is pointed toward different light sources".
 -Designed by Judith Karelitz, 1978 New York City.























Jupiter Scope: The Space-Age Prism by SolarGraphics 1981 Berkeley, CA
















Rainbow Disk LOOK! Sticks to windows and creates colorful prisms.
The Magic Mirror Book by Marion Walter 1971 (with mirror intact)
Assorted PrismaScopes























Now let's play!



1 comment:

Restauro de tapetes de Arraiolos said...

Hi
My name is Sónia and I would like to know if you are interested in selling the kaleidoscope zooscope. My email is ssimoesgraca@gmail.com. I am willing to pay the shipping costs two by PayPal. Waiting for your reply, best regards, Sónia.