Hans Lippershey

Hans Lippershey (1570 – buried 29 September 1619), also known as Johann Lippershey or Lipperhey, was a German-Dutch spectacle-maker. He is commonly associated with the invention of the telescope, although it is unclear if he was the first to build one.

Biography

Hans Lippershey was born in Wesel, in western Germany, in 1570. He settled in Middelburg, the capital of the province of Zeeland in the Netherlands, in 1594, married the same year and became a citizen of Zeeland in 1602. During that time he became a master lens grinder and spectacle maker and established a shop. He remained in Middelburg until his death, in September 1619.

Invention of the telescope

Hans Lippershey is known for the earliest written record of a refracting telescope, a patent he filed in 1608. His work with optical devices grew out of his work as a spectacle maker, an industry that had started in Venice and Florence in the thirteenth century, and later expanded to the Netherlands and Germany.

Lippershey applied, to the States General of the Netherlands on 2 October 1608, for a patent for his instrument "for seeing things far away as if they were nearby", beating another Dutch instrument-maker's patent, Jacob Metius, by a few weeks. Lippershey failed to receive a patent since the same claim for invention had also been made by other spectacle-makers but he was handsomely rewarded by the Dutch government for copies of his design.