Lewis D. Andrews, aged 9, of Stepney, Conn. for his question

Who made the very first telescope?

This happened in Europe over 350 years ago. In the year 1609, the patent offices of various countries were very busy. Several people claimed to have invented the same gadget. Most of the claims came from lens grinders and makers of spectacles. For the new invention was made from two glass lenses fixed in a hollow tube. When you looked through it, faraway things seemed near.

This gadget was, of course, the telescope. But it took time to sort out the original inventer from those who had merely improved upon it. History says that the very first telescope came into existence in the workshop of Jan Lippershay. Lippershay was a maker of eye glasses. It was usual for him to lift up a lens and peer through it to test it. We are not certain how he came to peer through two lenses at once.

He may have picked up a lens in each hand from his work bench, meaning to look through one at a time. He may have forgotten to lower one before he raised the other, However, another story is suggested. It may or may not be true, But it is Andy's favorite story of how the first telescope was made,

Jan Lippershay had a small son. We can imagine how the young fellow was fascinated by the lens grinder's work bench. He would have loved to play there and experiment. He, too, would peer through the lenses.  And, being a boy, he wanted to do even better.

One day, he picked up two lenses, held them out and peered through them both at once. What a surprise he got. A distant church steeple seemed to leap right into the workshop. For a peep through the two lenses together make faraway things look near.

Naturally the boy shouted for his father to come look. And naturally Jan Lippershay fixed up the lenses permanently in a hollow tube. Between them, busy father and curious son had made the very first telescope, No one can prove or disprove this story. But it seems likely.

The Lipperehays shared the new invention with friends. Other lens grinders made their own telescopes. Some improved on the original and applied for inventers patents. Around the year 1609, news of the new gadget came to the ears of the worlds greatest star‑gazer.

This, of course, was Galileo, of Venice, Italy. Galileo made his own telescope. He improved it until it would magnify 32 times. He turned it up into the sky. Galileo's brilliant mind had made many guesses about the heavenly bodies. He hoped the telescope would help him prove them. What he saw struck him dumb with amazement.

He saw that the mottled face of the moon was covered with mountains and valleys. He saw that the hazy Milky Way was made of millions of distant stars. He saw some of the moons of the planet Jupiter. And he was the first to behold the beautiful rings of Saturn. The notes he made on what he had seen changed the world’s idea of the starry skies.