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Hans Lippershey

Physics

Hans Lippershey was a German-born Dutch spectacle maker credited with filing the first patent application for a refracting telescope, in 1608.

Facts
Birth Year
1570 1
Britannica gives Lippershey's birth as circa 1570; his exact birth date and year are not firmly recorded.
Field
Optics and instrument making 1
Connections

Invented

Microscope, Instruments

Why this is disputed. One of three Dutch spectacle makers, alongside Hans and Zacharias Janssen, traditionally credited with the compound microscope around 1590; the attribution rests on 1655 testimony given decades after the fact and is treated by historians as unreliable.

Source Microscope (Britannica)
Telescope, Instruments

Applied for the first known telescope patent on 2 October 1608, calling the instrument a kijker; the States General denied a patent as too easily copied but granted him 900 florins.

Source Hans Lippershey (Britannica)

Works In

Physics, Disciplines
Source Hans Lippershey (Britannica)
Sources
1. Hans Lippershey (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaView the Source
Microscope (Britannica)
Encyclopaedia BritannicaInvented: MicroscopeView the Source
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