![]() These instruments were both amusement and instruction combined (these two terms continually crop up in literature and adverts), and it is this duplicity that best explains how the early media entertainments of the nineteenth century first emerged from the instrument makers’ workshops. Drawing on an older conception of science as akin to wonderment ( Daston and Park, 2001), these toys presented magical spectacles that could shock or delight but through the supporting literature and surrounding marketing discourse, this magic was explained, so that the toy became an indicator of attained scientific knowledge. Optical toys were exciting because of their dual status as sources of spectacle and demonstrations of optics. There are many treatises and advertisements that praise the intellectual worth of these small mechanical trinkets. The optical toys themselves were also intended for a popular education market. ![]() Similarly, David Brewster’s A Treatise on Optics ( 1833 ) categorises different optical principles and suggests how these are exemplified by particular optical instruments. J R Paris’s Philosophy in Sport Made Science in Ernest ( 1831) taught scientific theory through the medium of children’s toys and games, and is intended as a useful manual to show tutors how to address different aspects of scientific education. There was much popular interest in science in the early nineteenth century, as shown by the many books intended to teach principles in entertaining or accessible ways. These toys may have been scaled-down versions of earlier scientific instruments, or newly invented devices that could be sold as intellectually stimulating. Optical and philosophical toys were first integrated into the practice of the instrument maker and popular scientist as a means of demonstrating particular scientific principles. Philip Carpenter and the convergence of science and entertainment in the early-nineteenth century instrument trade The Kaleidoscope
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