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The Scientific Revolution

The Telescope

The first telescope was made in Holland, by a Dutch lens maker who hit on the idea of putting two lenses at each end of a tube and looking through it. Galileo read about this invention in a letter and forthwith built his own. He ground his own lenses, constructed his own tube, and produced a telescope with a power of magnification of about 10 -- more than twice as powerful as the one the Dutch had made. That Galileo could do this after merely having read a description of the device is a testament to his skill as a craftsman.

Galileo built his telescope in 1610 when he was living in Venice. The first thing he did with his invention was try to make money from it. He showed it to Venetian businessmen, showing them that with his device they would be able to see ships entering the port of Venice long before anyone else could. By noting the colors and cut of the ship, they would know who owned it and therefore would know its cargo. This would give them crucial market knowledge hours ahead of their competitors.

Galileo soon had orders to build more telescopes. Had he done only this, he would have been known as a great inventor. But he went further. He pointed his telescope up, to the night sky. And what he found there changed the scientific world forever.