Who Invented the Telescope?

This has been a question many people have asked. There are four men who are involved in the answer to this question that we are still puzzling about today. Hans Lippershey, Zacharias Janssen, Jacob Metius and Galileo Galilei.

Hans Lippershey was an eyeglass maker and the first person to apply for a patent on the idea of a device that could magnify what you are looking at three times. People argued against him trying to patent this idea, saying that he stole the idea from another eyeglass maker, Zacharias Janssen. Jansen and Lippershey lived in the same town, and were both eyeglass makers, but there is no proof that  Lippershey made his telescope alone. In the end, Lippershey got credit for creating the telescope and Jansen got credit for creating the compound microscope. The topic of who created the microscope is debated as well, but as the article, “Who Invented The Telescope?” By Lauren Cox reads, “while Jansen is credited with inventing the compound microscope. Both appear to have contributed to the development of both instruments.”  meaning that both men appeared to have both worked on creating the microscope and telescope.

Soon another man, Jacob Metius was thrown into the mix. Jacob Metius applied for a patent on the telescope a few weeks after Lippershey did. The government soon turned down both offers for a patent because of counterclaims. In the end, Jacob Metius got a small reward but Lippershey was paid a lot of money to have his telescopes remade and sold or used.

Lastly, Galileo Galilei was involved in this mess when he had heard about the first telescopes and created his own with a few tweaks and then presented it to the Venetian Senate, and in return they set him up for life as a lecturer at the University of Padua. Galileo was also the first to look at the sky and the stars with a telescope, resulting in the discovery of  the Sun’s sunspots and Jupiter’s set of moons as well was many other things, that you can check out here.

Lastly, where is my thought in all of this. Personally, I feel that there is so much more out in the universe that has not yet been seen and just like Galileo, I want to use something we already have and see the world and the universe in a new way as he used the telescope to look at the stars.

Four men who are all considered to be the creator of the telescope, but who actually made the first one? Many people have been wondering this, and many more to come are going to ask this question as well.

Sources:

http://www.space.com/21950-who-invented-the-telescope.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscope

http://users.etown.edu/r/riegerj/media/Timeline.htm

Images:

http://galileo.rice.edu/images/things/hevelius_telescope.gif

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/55/5f/4e/555f4e3a021532dcf6fda32aaf8248d6.jpg