From Catskill Corners’ very beginning, a use for each of its restored farm buildings was obvious, with one exception. The original silo, standing tall and empty, remained without seeming purpose until inspiration provided a vision. It would become the world’s largest kaleidoscope!
In time we contacted the Brewster Society, whose membership is comprised of the world’s foremost kaleidoscope craftspeople, collectors and dealers. The Society is named after Sir David Brewster who invented the kaleidoscope in 1816. Cozy Baker is the founder and president of the Brewster Society, which has the world’s largest collection of ‘scopes, both ancient and modern. She put us in touch with Charles Karadimos, one of the country’s most innovative kaleidoscope artists, and he was engaged to design the 38 foot tall optical heart of the kaleidoscope.
A worldwide search for the right material led to an unbreakable space-age product with 98% of the reflectivity of fine mirror glass. Thirty-six five- foot by ten-foot panels of this new material were joined to form our giant mirror tube, so large and heavy a temporary steel structure 40 feet high, 100 feet long, 60 feet wide and outfitted with six remote-controlled chain hoists was needed to join the three panels together.
Meanwhile, a process was created whereby video images could be provided by a projector suspended sixty feet in the air onto a specially constructed and lensed rear screen that would stretch over the mirror tube’s expansive opening.
And so it developed that the two ancient components of the traditional kaleidoscope, the mirrors and the object chamber, unchanged for centuries, were replaced in our revolutionary model by space-age technology. We had also transformed the kaleidoscope into a narrative device through which creative programming could be experienced -- in three dimensions, vivid color, and SurroundSound.
As the possibilities of this serendipitous extravaganza grew increasingly apparent, we replaced the old silo with a new, 65 foot high structure to accommodate more visitors per show. Our patent-pending kaleidoscope is sure to remain unrivaled in the Guinness Book of World Records for many years to come.