Who Asked: Catherine
The Book: The Fading Empire, Earth
Answer: You know, I thought this was going to be a no-brainer. This is exactly why when you go to the library, the people behind the desk don’t just tell you what the answer is, but also give you a citation for where they found the information.
Everybody knows that Galileo invented the telescope, right? Um . . . wrong. He was just the first guy to use it for astronomy.
Actually, there were a number of Dutch opticians working with lens designs that could have resulted in the telescope. The one who usually gets credit for the invention is Hans Lipperhey, simply because he was the first of the bunch to apply for a patent.
The book Stargazer: the Life and Times of the Telescope fills in some of the gaps of the story. I’ll summarize: while there were rudimentary designs before this time, Lepphery arrived on the scene when techniques for making concave and convex lenses had finally become sophisticated enough to make a working model. He also arrived during the middle of the Eighty Years War, carrying that working model to Prince Maurice of Nassau, commander in chief of the armed forces of the United Provinces, who was eager to use the telescope for tactical military advantage. While someone present described Lepphery as “a humble, very religious and God-fearing man,” it seems that he was really out to make a quick buck from being in the right place at the right time.
You could definitely use something like this in your novel. The intrigues, the hidden motivations—and don’t forget the competition with those other Dutch opticians to get the working design first—that’s what good stories are made of.
Thanks so much for playing Stump the Librarian!
Amber
Web Resources
Print Resources
- Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope by Fred Watson
