Sources: Kaleidoscope Renaissance and Kaleidoscopes: Wonders of Wonder by Cozy Baker
Very little is known about the earliest kaleidoscope developments on this side of the Atlantic.
Although as early as 1818, a few Americans began experimenting with kaleidoscopes,
only one remains of any permanent significance - that of Charles G. Bush (1825-1900).
Bush is somewhat of an enigma. Untrained in any of the physical sciences, he arrived in
Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1847 from Culberg, Prussia, where he was born in 1825. He had worked in his father's hemp
manufacturing business and proceeded to establish a successful rope business in Plymouth. In later years,
after moving to Boston, he pursued interests in microscopes, telescopes, astronomy, and photography, at
all of which he excelled. It was in the early 1870s that he began developing kaleidoscopes.
Bush manufactured his parlor kaleidoscopes by the thousands and they were recognized as extraordinary even then.
These instruments had a barrel of black hardboard with a spoked brass wheel rotating an object cell, mounted
on a turned wooden stand.
Most noteworthy about the Bush kaleidoscopes were the glass pieces contained in the object case. Bush had a
basic mix of about 35 pieces, a third of which were liquid filled. Inside the liquids were air bubbles that
continued to move even after the object case was at rest. Both the solid and liquid-filled glass pieces were
of brilliant and well-chosen colors, and the patterns they formed were the finest of any 19th century
kaleidoscope. One unusual piece that comes into view in a very few of the original Bush scopes is a clear glass
disk embossed with a swan. But it is the liquid-filled ampules that are by far the most distinctive feature of
the Bush scope.
While Bush has been given credit for the first liquid-filled ampules, there is mention in Brewster's original
1819 treatise that "differently moving fluids enclosed and moving in small vessels of glass will make the
finest transparent objects for the kaleidoscope". That explains why a few such objects can be seen in some
early European scopes.
Bush secured several patents in 1873 and 1874; the first for a new and useful object for the object
box - hermetically sealed liquid-filled ampules; the second for a means to add and subtract
pieces from the object case without having to disassemble it; one for the use of a color wheel as a
backdrop for the images; and another for a four-legged wooden stand that could be disassembled for
easier carrying and shipping.
To find a Bush scope in good condition is quite rare, but if one does surface, it is more likely to be the single pedestal than the four-pronged model. And while it is rare indeed to find one with the wire attachment to hold a color card, the hole through which the wire passed is one sure way to recognize an original Bush.
It is hard to believe that this handsome instrument originally sold for a mere $2.00. Today's prices
typically hover around $800-$1000, with some specimens containing rare objects and in very good condition
fetching as much as $2,000 or more.
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Bush Kaleidoscope Patents (Approx. 380Kb).