484 Dr. Moll on the Invention of Telescopes. 



elsewhere, a stranger came from Holland to Middelburg to 

 inquire into this matter, and, asking for a spectacle-maker, he 

 was shown by mistake into the shop of John Laprey. He spoke 

 with him about the secret of the telescope. Laprey, being an 

 ingenious man and a close observer, heard attentively what the 

 stranger said, and thus, with laudable industry -and care, be- 

 came the second inventor of the long telescope, which he 

 made to the satisfaction of the stranger. Therefore Laprey, 

 who by his ingenuity discovered a thing which was not shown 

 to him, deserves to be ranked as second inventor. He first 

 sold telescopes, and made them generally known. Afterwards, 

 Adrian Metius, Professor of Francker, and, later, Cornelius 

 Drebbel, came to Middelburg in 1620, and bought each a 

 telescope, not from Laprey, but from Zacharias Tausz. 



From this evidence we may infer, that Hans, or John, and 

 his son Zacharias, were actually the inventors of a compound 

 microscope for opaque objects : the elegant ornaments of this 

 instrument, and the general description which Boreel gives of 

 it, make it probable that both Hans and Zacharias were men of 

 ability. But with microscopes we have at present nothing to do. 

 The point at issue is, whether either Hans or Zacharias, or any 

 body else, actually made telescopes before the 2d of October, 

 1608 ; and since Boreel indicates 1610 as the epoch of the 

 invention of Hans and Zacharias, the claim of Lippershey to 

 priority remains unshaken, even by the evidence of Boreel. 



The following witness is John, the son of Zacharias, and 

 consequently grandson of this Hans, of whom Boreel has 

 spoken. He says, in 1655, that he then was fifty-two years 

 old ; thus, at the period when Lippershey sent in his petition, i. e. 

 in 1608, he was only five years old. He does not mention his 

 grandfather, but says, that his father, Zacharias, was the first 

 inventor of the telescopes ; and that this happened, as he had 

 often heard, in this town, in 1590; but the longest telescope 

 made at that time did not exceed in length fifteen or sixteen 

 inches. He affirms, that two such telescopes were then offered, 

 one to Prince Maurice, the other to the Archduke Albert ; and 

 that telescopes of such length were in use till 1618. At that 

 time, he, John, and his father, Zacharias, invented the con- 

 struction and fabric of the longer telescopes, which are still 



