In Holland,
several stories have been preserved about the wonderful glass grinders. They
say that in the city of Middelburg the glorious master Hans Lippersgay lived.
And another master lived here - Zachary Jansen. Both of them were excellent
grinders, they made lenses for glasses. Legend says that both had children -
playful boys. Thanks to them, the fathers made discoveries!
That was so.
Like any restless children, sons liked to hold instruments and polished glass
in their hands in the absence of fathers. Once the sons of Lippersgay looked
through the glass at church, which was visible from the window.
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| Camp Spyglass |
“Look,” - said
one, - “the church has become small-small, but how clearly it is visible! All
scratches on the walls are visible, and the colored windows, and the bell
tower..."
“And in this
glass,” - said another, - “it, on the contrary, is tremendous, but somehow it
all blurred."
“What if the
glasses are put together?”
No sooner said
than done. They took out a copper tube, stuck a convex lens on one side and a
concave one on the other. Now, when they looked into the tube through both
lenses, the church looked large and was clearly visible. So the children of
Hans Lippersgay "invented" a spyglass.
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| One of the First Microscopes |
But the children
of Zachariah Jansen did no less. The same story happened to them. The only
difference is that they only had magnifying glasses on hand. With their help,
they examined the skin on their hands, nails, hair. And having put two glasses
into the tube, they received such a powerful magnifying apparatus that they
were even frightened when they examined an ordinary fly into it.
So, according to
legend, the first microscope appeared. The similarity of these stories makes
one doubt both. Too simply they explain the invention of the amazing helpers of
the human eye!