Vintage Kaleidoscope "The Karascope" By Judith Karelitz 1978. This kaleidoscope is good vintage condition with wear consistent with age.
The Karascope(Trade Marked) designed by Judith Karelitz. The Karascope created 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.
An ordinary white light which vibrates in all directions is polarized along one plane when it passes thru 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. Copyright Judith Karelitz 1978 N. Y. C. The kaleidoscope itself says the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Karascope TM By Judith Karelitz patent 3,841730 Copyright 1978 Made in U.S.A.
Dimensions of the kaleidoscope are approx 11 1/4 by 2 1/16 inches in diameter. Exterior is a cardboard tube.
