Telescope Invention: Who was first?
Early Telescope Designers of Note
Isaac Newton - W. Herschel - Johannes Kepler - Laurent Cassegrain - James Gregory - John Dolland - John Hadley
Hans Lippershey
Sacharias Janssen
Wmade the first telescope? It's hard to say, since the creation of the first astronomy tools was apparently another case of simultaneous discovery. In any case it was it was not Galileo Galilei. He had much to do with the perfection of some of the fist telescopes, but those were existing intstruments.
Many historians give the credit to Dutch optometrist Hans Lippershey (left), although that too is probably incorrect. Working independently at roughly the same time, Sacharias Janssen and at least one other Dutch scientist completed very similar projects, though it doesn't necessarily mean that either of them were the first to design, build or use telescopes.
Another possibility, suggested by colleagues and family members following his death, was that Leonard Digges (1520 – 1559), English mathematician/surveyor, experimented with refracting and reflecting telescopes sometime in the mid 1500's. It was claimed too, that sometime between 1540 and 1559, Digges succeeded in constructed a functional optical system employing both lenses and a concave mirror, although the precision required of such lenses would most likely have been beyond the capabilities of sixteenth century craftsmen and their instruments.
The list of possible telescope inventors goes on and on, but it does seem likely that Hans Lippershey was the first person to submit a patent application for such a device. Lippershey aggressively promoted his spyglass and eventually sold it to the Dutch government for military purposes.
Enter Galileo (despite the Matthew Effect)
The argument over who invented the the telescope is as old as the instrument itself, but for our purposes,it may have well as been Galileo Galilei who created the first light gathering device. Prior to his involvement these "spyglasses" had been seen as magnifying devices primarily of use to to the military, or to surveyors and sailors, making objects visible that were beyond the range of the naked eye.
Galileo Galilei 1639
The Matthew Effect, coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton and based on the biblical gospel of Matthew, is usually used to describe the social phenomena through which the "rich get richer and the poor get poorer." Merton also used the phrase in a scientific context. The meaning is similar-- eminent scientists are often given credit for the work or discoveries of lesser known researchers, often graduate students.
Although the Matthew Effect certainly applies in this case, it is probably just as well. It was Galileo, after all, who recognized the potential of these instruments for astronomy research and first turned a telescope toward the heavens.
Early in the seventeenth century, Galileo purchased one of Lippershey's "spyglasses. He made significant improvements and modified it for use in astronomy. He gave it the name "telescope," a composite of two Greek words for "far" and "to see." No one else had foreseen that possibility, and it was Galileo who became the first human being to view Saturn's rings and to witness the moons of Jupiter, identifying and describing them as such.