Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-06-09
A DISCOVERY.
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TIE sunlight shone through the narrow
little window panes, Frightening tho work
shop of Jan Jansen, the best spectacle
maker in the town Of Middleburg, Holland.
Little rays danced in and out among the
half ground glasses that were lying on the
wooden bench underneath the window,
waiting their turn to be finished and to be
Ut in pairs In the clumsy horn or metal
frames, and bright reflections CLEANED and
sparkled on q new pair Of silver trimmed
spectacles that young girl held in her
hand.
Meenie often helped her father in his
work, giving the finishing touches and the
final polish to the spectacles he made, ana
this pair, which the burgomaster had Or
dered for himself, must be finished, Of
course in the best possible manner.
Satisfied at last with the way they look
ed, she put them into a heavy wooden case,
the kind they used in those days, very
different from the neat leather case, lined
with silk. that your grandfather has now to
hold his glasses. At the other end of the
bench was plane used for finishing off the
wooden cases Or holders, and Peter Upper
sheim, the apprentice boy, had left it and
the other tools there half covered with
shavings and bits of wood when he stopped
work to go to his supper.
Meenie brushed up the shavings and put
the tools in their places, so that her father
would find them in the morning without
the trouble Of looking for them. Then, not
wishing to disturb his evening nap as he
sat doing in the chimney corner, she sat
down quietly to watch the little specks of
dust that she had sent flying through the
air, all golden in the evening sunlight.
What atrOubesome thing she thought it
must be to have to put on pair of spec
tacles whenever one wished to have good
look at anything! She took up one of the
glasses, a lens that her father had ground
to make 1t concave on one side. This she
held to her eye, and reaching for a glass
from another pile she held it off at some
distance in front of the first one, SO that she
looked through both glasses with the same
eye.
The second glass happened to be convex
lens, and she got Q start of surprise as she
found that the church steeple, half way
down the street, seemed to be just outside
the window, and moving the glasses back
ward and forward to suit her eye she dis
covered that they brought the gilded wealth
ercock on the steeple almost near enough
for her to touch it.
And look at the storks' nest on the tower!
Why, the storks flying off the nest and
round the steeple, seemed to be coming
right into the window ii the Workshop
She put down the glasses and rubbed her
eyes to make sure that she was awake and
not dreaming that the church steeple had
left its place on the roof and was wander
ing around through the air like the stories
they told Of the wild huntsman and his
dogs, or Of the witches riding on broom
sticks.
Her father was still doing, but Meenie
was wide awake She looked through some
of the other glasses, but things through
them did not appear to her so near or so
plain as through the first pair. She tried
these again, hardly expecting to see them
perform as they had done the first time.
But, sure enough, there was the church
steeple just outside the window, and she
could see every stick and straw in the
storks' nest on the tower as plain as day
This time her exclamation of surprise
,awoke her father, and he began to expert
Inent with the concave and convex lenses
The result of his experiments was so sue
cessful that he was only surprised that no
one had ever made so simple discovery
before. He knew that double convex
lens-that is, a glass curved OH both sides
would converge the parallel rays of light
falling on it. and that these same rays pass
ing through a double concave lens-that is,
one followed on both sides-would again
become parallel in the small beam of light
that enters the eye and make the object
appear, though quite small, very distinct
and near.
When he had fastened these two glasses,
the double convex toward the object to be
viewed and the double concave to be held
near the eye, on board. the spectacle max
err had the first and only telescope then
known in the world
This was In 1549. and the fame of this
optical instrument went through all Eu-
rope. No one seemed to think of the prac-
tical uses to which it could be put, and no
one dreamed of the capabilities of this sort
Of optic that the Dutch people had in their
possession. It was not yet telescope;
merely pair Of magnifying glasses, differ
ing from ordinary spectacles only in the
way they were set.
In 1909 Galilei, famous mathematician
and philosopher from Pisa, Italy, acciden-
tally heard while in Venice of this optical
instrument, and he set to work to construct
a telescope on scientific principles He
ground two pieces of glass into the shape
that he thought they should have to be per-
feet lenses and fitted them into the two
ends of an organ pipe.
This was the same principle on which JAN
sen had constructed his telescope so long
before, except that instead of fastening the
glasses to board Gallei placed them in
tube. He showed the results of his inven-
ton to the Venetians on the top of St.
Marks tower, and because he devoted HIM
self to improving and perfecting the tele-
scope he is usually given the honor of its
invention. sesa asssm =-5.
Perhaps, after all. that is but Just. for the
real author of an invention is he who, from
a knowledge Of the cause that produces the
effect, deduces it from one principle to an
other till he comes to the end that he has in
view, Sass
The original telescope made by Galilei is
still preserved in the British museum. 1t
Is but an inch in diameter and magnifies OBJ
5ects 80 times. Yet it was with this simple
instrument that he discovered that the
moons face is full of inequalities like
mountains and valleys; that there are spots
on the sun; that Venus has different phases
and Jupiter has satellites, and that there
are thousands OF stars in all parts of the