The Invention of the Telescope

First Made in the Netherlands - But Designer's Name Still Disputed

Sep 12, 2009

Hans Lipperhey is most often credited with inventing the telescope. However, Pierre Borel in his 1655 book said that Zacharias Janssen was its creator.

By trade both men were what are today called eyeglass makers or opticians. They lived in the Dutch city of Middleburg. Lipperhey (also sometimes spelled Lippershey) was born in Wezel, Germany in 1570. About 1600 he moved to Middleburg. Janssen (sometimes his first name is spelled Sacharias and sometimes his last name is spelled Jansen) was born in the Netherlands about 1588.

Importance of the City of Middleburg

Middleburg probably had the best eyeglass makers in Europe at the time. These men knew how to grind high-quality glass lenses, which were essential to the making of telescopes. The lens grinders or opticians in Middleburg had access to the excellent glass made in Venice.

Lipperhey, with the help of an assistant, built his first telescope by making a tube of wood that was about two feet long and putting a glass lens at each end of it. After a few years of experimentation, he sold his telescope, which was called in Dutch a kijkglas ( look glass) to the Dutch army, which intended to use it for military purposes.

Lipperhey Makes a Telescope for Henry IV

In September or October 1608, Lipperhey sent a telescope as a present to Mauritz of Nassau, a prince and soldier. In that year too the Dutch government asked him to make a telescope to give as a gift toKing Henry IV of France. Etched on the telescope's metal tube were Lipperhey's name and city of residence.

Besides the Dutch name, other early names for the telescope were spyglass in English and occhiale (the word for eyeglasses) in Italian. When Galileo first referred to it while writing in Latin, he called it perspiculum.

How the Telescope Got Its Name

The instrument was renamed the telescope in April 1611 during a banquet in honor of Galileo, who was by then famous in Europe following the 1610 publication of his Starry Messenger. That book was about his early astronomical discoveries using the telescope. Author Barbara Land writes in the Telescope Makers that at the event, Ionnes Demisianei renamed the instrument telescopio, derived from the Greek words for far and to look.

In 1608 Lipperhey tried to patent his telescope, but the patent-granting body of the Netherlands turned him down. It said that too many already knew about the telescope for any individual to be granted a patent for it. In fact, the Dutchman Jacob Metius of Alkmaar also applied for a patent in 1608 and too was rejected.

As word of this new instrument spread, other men quickly made examples of it. In no time the telescope was being sold in London, Heidelberg and Paris. One visitor to the Frankfurt fair said that a telescope was for sale there in 1608. In 1609, the telescope went to Italy, first to Milan in May and within three months to Rome, Naples, Padua and Venice. Once the telescope arrived in Italy, Galileo heard of it and the rest is history.

The copyright of the article The Invention of the Telescope in Astronomy History is owned by Linda N. Riggins. Permission to republish The Invention of the Telescope in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.