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The Development of the telescope

  • 3500 BCE

    Discovery of Glass

    The glass was discovered by Phoenicians
    when cooking on sand
  • 424 BCE

    Use Of Glass

    Glass was used as carriers/containers to carry liquid or things such as water, in order to make fires
  • Period: 1400 to 1500

    Use Of Glass to correct eyesight

    14th century--convex lenses to correct farsightedness are developed, then in the 15th century, nearsighted lenses were corrected
  • Invention of Telescope

    1608--In the Netherlands, Hans Lippershey discovers that holding two lenses up some distance apart brings objects closer. He applies for a patent on his invention. This is the first documented creation of a telescope. The idea is independently developed by Jacub Metius and Zacharias Janssen. The patent to Lippershey is denied.
  • Newton Produces the first Reflecting telescope

    Newton produces the first successful reflecting telescope, using a two-inch diameter concave spherical mirror, a flat, angled secondary mirror, and a convex eyepiece lens. (See the drawing of Newton's telescope in this website.) As is often the case in physics, the simplest solution is often the most practical one. The reflector telescope that Newton designed opened the door to magnifying objects millions of times--far beyond what could ever be obtained with a lens.
  • Period: to

    Development of Improvment to lenses

    Chester Moor Hall develops an achromatic lens. -H. Dennis Taylor, optical manager of T. Cooke & Sons of York, makers of astronomical telescopes, designed and patented the revolutionary, and now famous, triplet design (British patent no. 1991).
  • Period: to

    Lohman Brothers Telescope

    The magnificent five-inch f/17 refractor shown on the left was made by the Lohmann brothers in Greenville, Ohio, about 1920. The Lohmann brothers imigrated from Germany around 1890. In their shop, they built wagon wheels, bicycles, and did general wood and metalworking, as well as repair. At some point, they developed an interest in telescopes and began building both reflectors and refractors. The largest known has a 12-inch diameter objective lens and was owned by astronmer leslie