94 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [FEB. 21, 



strange, then, that we find the use of a' simple magnifying lens 

 extending so far back that we are unable to fix the date for its 

 discovery. But, down to the beginning of the 17th century, no 

 one seems to have thought of combining two lenses together, 

 one in front of the other, so as to render distant objects visible. 

 There appears to be some uncertainty as to the name of the 

 original inventor of the telescope. Undoubtedly, Galileo was the 

 first to publish to the world the manner of making the instru- 

 ment, and, furthermore, he was probably an independent inven- 

 tor ; but it is well known that he was not the original inventor. 

 In the Archives of The Hague, quoted by Arago, we read that a 

 spectacle-maker of Middleburg, named John Lippershey, ad- 

 dressed a petition to the States-General on October 2d, 1606, in 

 which he asked leave to take out a patent which should consti- 

 tute him the only maker of an instrument capable of rendering 

 distant objects visible, or which should confer upon him an 

 annual pension, on the condition of not manufacturing the 

 instrument for other nations. On the 4th of October, 1608, the 

 States-General appointed a deputy from each province to experi- 

 ment on the new instrument, which was about one foot and a 

 half in length. On the 6th of October, the commission declared 

 the instrument to be useful to the nation, but demanded that it 

 should be made for two eyes instead of for one. On the 9th of 

 December, Lippershey announced that he had solved the problem. 

 A favorable report was made on the 11th, and the binocular 

 instrument was declared a success. "Saturnus tells us that an 

 unknown man of genius called on Lippershey and ordered from 

 him a number of convex and concave lenses. At the time agreed 

 upon the man returned and chose two lenses, one convex and the 

 other concave, and placing them one before his eye and the other 

 at some distance from it, drew them backwards and forwards 

 without giving any explanation of his manoeuvres, paid the opti- 

 cian and left the place. As soon as he was gone Lippershey 

 began to imitate the experiments of the stranger, and soon found 

 that distant objects were brought apparently nearer when the 

 lenses were placed in certain positions. He next fastened them 

 to the ends of a tube, and lost no time in presenting the new 

 instrument to Prince Maurice.of Nassau." 



