IN 1608, that’s 416 years ago, Hans Lipperhey of Middelburg applied for the patent for the world’s very first telescope in The Hague. He described it as a “certain instrument to see far away.”
Hans invented it.
His neighbor, also a Hans, had a little earlier invented its counterpart, the microscope. Hans Janssen did so together with his son Zach.
The telescope and the microscope, two very Dutch inventions. Just like gibbing, the CD, the DVD, the tape cassette, wifi, bluetooth, Blu-Ray, the cloud, and orange carrots.
