{{Short description|German-Dutch lens crafter (1570–1619)}}
{{use dmy dates|date=May 2026}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Hans Lipperhey
| image              = Lipperhey portrait.jpg
| birth_date         = {{circa|1570}}
| birth_place        = [[Wesel]], [[Duchy of Cleves]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| death_date         = {{Death year and age|1619|1570|9}}
| death_place        = [[Middelburg, Zeeland|Middelburg]], [[Dutch Republic]]
| known_for          = Earliest known [[patent]] application for a [[telescope]] 
| occupation         = [[Glasses|spectacle-maker]]
}}
'''Hans Lipperhey'''{{efn|{{IPA|de|hans ˈlɪpɐhaɪ|small=no}}, {{IPA|nl|ɦɑns ˈlɪpərɦɛi|small=no}}.}} ({{circa|1570}} – buried 29 September 1619), also known as '''Johann Lippershey''' or simply '''Lippershey''',{{efn|Originally a misspelling found in an English translation from 1831, ''Lippershey'' is pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|ɪ|p|ər|ʃ|i}} {{respell|LIP|ər|shee}}.}} was a [[Germany|German]]-[[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[Glasses|spectacle-maker]]. He is commonly associated with the invention of the [[telescope]], because he was the first one who tried to obtain a patent for it.<ref name="HCKing"/>{{rp|30}} It is, however, unclear if he was the first one to build a telescope.

==Biography==
Lipperhey was born in [[Wesel]], now in western [[Germany]], around 1570. He settled in [[Middelburg, Zeeland|Middelburg]], the capital of the province of [[Zeeland]], now 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 [[Glasses|spectacle]] maker and established a shop. He remained in Middelburg until his death, in September 1619.

===Invention of the telescope===
{{see also|History of the telescope}}
Hans Lipperhey is known for the earliest written record of a [[refracting telescope]], a patent he filed in 1608.<ref name="HCKing"/>{{rp|30}}<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nhgUU3XAytgC&dq=Hans+Lippershey+inventor+of+the+telescope.&pg=PT58|title=Light Years: An Exploration of Mankind's Enduring Fascination with Light|first=Brian |last=Clegg|date=26 December 2007 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-55386-6}}</ref> His work with optical devices grew out of his work as a spectacle maker,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2LZZginzib4C&q=dutch&pg=PA62|first=Fred |last=Watson|title=Stargazer|date=2007 |page=55|publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn=978-1-74176-392-8}}</ref> an industry that had started in Venice and Florence in the thirteenth century,<ref name="galileo"/> and later expanded to the [[Netherlands]] and Germany.<ref name="HCKing">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KAWwzHlDVksC&dq=alhazen+and+the+telescope&pg=PA27|title=The History of the Telescope|first=Henry C.|last=King|date=January 2003|publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=0-486-43265-3 |quote=(spectacles) invention, an important step in the history of the telescope}}</ref>{{rp|27}}

Lipperhey 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''",<ref name="Bologna"/> a few weeks before another Dutch instrument-maker's patent, that of [[Jacob Metius]]. Lipperhey failed to receive a patent since the same claim for invention had also been made by other spectacle-makers,<ref name="Bologna">{{cite web|url=http://www.bo.astro.it/dip/Museum/english/can_int.html|title=Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna - TELESCOPES|quote=The request however was turned down, also because other spectacle-makers had made similar claims at the same time.}}</ref><ref name="galileo">{{cite web|quote=The Hague discussed the patent applications first of Hans Lipperhey of Middelburg, and then of Jacob Metius of Alkmaar... another citizen of Middelburg, [[Zacharias Janssen]] had a telescope at about the same time but was at the Frankfurt Fair where he tried to sell it.|url=http://galileo.rice.edu/sci/instruments/telescope.html|work=galileo.rice.edu|title=The Galileo Project > Science > The Telescope|first=Al|last=Van Helden}}</ref> but he was handsomely rewarded by the Dutch [[government]] for copies of his [[design]].

Lipperhey's application for a patent was mentioned at the end of a diplomatic report on an embassy to Holland from the [[Ayutthaya Kingdom|Kingdom of Siam]] sent by the Siamese king [[Ekathotsarot]]: ''Ambassades du Roy de Siam envoyé à l'Excellence du Prince Maurice, arrivé à La Haye le 10 Septemb. 1608'' (''Embassy of the King of Siam sent to his Excellency Prince Maurice, arrived at The Hague on 10 September 1608''). This report was issued in October 1608 and distributed across Europe, leading to experiments by other scientists, such as the Italian [[Paolo Sarpi]], who received the report in November, the Englishman [[Thomas Harriot]], who was using a six-powered telescope by the summer of 1609, and [[Galileo Galilei]], who improved the device.<ref>{{harvnb|Van Helden|1977|p=40}}; {{harvnb|Van Helden|1985|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=L-yb7GX9mQIC&pg=PA65 65]}}, {{harvnb|Drake|1978|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=OwOlRPbrZeQC&pg=PA138 138]}}</ref>

There are many stories as to how Lipperhey came by his invention. One version has Lipperhey observing two children playing with [[lens (optics)|lenses]] in his shop and commenting how they could make a far away [[Weather vane|weather-vane]] seem closer when looking at it through two lenses. Other stories have Lipperhey's apprentice coming up with the idea or have Lipperhey copying someone else's discovery.<ref name="Conner">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PIzziChYQvoC&dq=hans+lippershey+children&pg=PA326|title=A people's history of science: miners, midwives, and "low mechanicks|first=Clifford D.|last=Conner|date=8 November 2005 |publisher=PublicAffairs |isbn=978-1-56025-748-6}}</ref> Lipperhey's original instrument consisted of either two [[Lens (optics)#Types of simple lenses|convex]] lenses with an inverted image or a convex [[Objective (optics)|objective]] and a [[Lens (optics)#Types of simple lenses|concave]] [[eyepiece]] lens so it would have an upright image.<ref name="Conner"/> This "Dutch perspective glass" (the name "''telescope''" would not be coined until three years later by [[Giovanni Demisiani]]) had a three-times (or 3×) [[magnification]].
  
The lunar crater [[Lippershey (crater)|Lippershey]], the minor planet [[31338 Lipperhey]], and the exoplanet [[55 Cancri d|Lipperhey]] (55 Cancri Ad) are named after him.

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
* {{cite book |last=Drake  |first=Stillman |authorlink=Stillman Drake|date=1978 |title=Galileo At Work | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OwOlRPbrZeQC|location=Mineola, New York |publisher=Dover |isbn=0-486-49542-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Van Helden  |first=Albert |date=1977 |title=The Invention of the Telescope  |url=https://archive.org/details/inventionofteles0000vanh |url-access=registration |location=Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |publisher=[[The American Philosophical Society]] |isbn=0-87169-674-6}}
* {{cite book |last=Van Helden  |first=Albert |date=1985 |title=Measuring the Universe| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L-yb7GX9mQIC  |location=Chicago, Illinois |publisher=[[The University of Chicago Press]] |isbn=0-226-84881-7}}
*{{cite journal|first=G.|last=Moll|title=On the first Invention of Telescopes|journal=Journal of the Royal Institution|volume=1|year=1831|pages=319–332; 483–496|ref=none}} This is a shortened English version of Moll's article
* {{cite journal|title=Historical research into the first inventors of the binoculars, compiled from the notes of the late professor J.H. van Swinden|journal=New Dissertations of the Royal Dutch Institute|volume=3|year=1831|pages=103–209}} In the English version, Moll mistakenly uses the spelling 'Lippershey', with an 's'. Through this English article this spelling has unfortunately become common in English literature.

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
*[http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/optics/timeline/people/lippershey.html Molecular Expressions: Science, Optics and You - Timeline - Hans Lippershey]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100425134409/http://www.inventionofthetelescope.eu/400y_telescope/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/lang,en 400th Anniversary of the Invention of the Telescope]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lippershey, Hans}}
[[Category:16th-century births]]
[[Category:1619 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch inventors]]
[[Category:17th-century German inventors]]
[[Category:Dutch opticians]]
[[Category:Dutch scientific instrument makers]]
[[Category:People from Wesel]]
[[Category:People from Middelburg, Zeeland]]
[[Category:Copernican Revolution]]
[[Category:German emigrants to the Dutch Republic]]