Sacharias Jansen
Dutch spectacle-maker and inventor
1580 CE to 1638 CE
Sacharias Jansen (c. 1580 - c. 1638) is a Dutch spectacle-maker from Middelburg credited with inventing, or contributing advances towards the invention of the first telescope.
Jansen is sometimes credited for inventing the first truly compound microscope.
However, the origin of the microscope, just like the origin of the telescope, is a matter of debate.
His name is often written as Zacharias Jansen or Zacharias Janssen, but Dutch scientific literature writes the name as Sacharias Jansen.
In 2008, the Netherlands commemorated the 400th anniversary of the telsescope, honoring Jansen as one of the two possible inventors, the other being Hans Lippershey.
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Sacharias Janssen is the possible inventor of a single-lens (simple) microscope, probably with the help of his father, in 1595, while trying to find a way to make magnification even greater, to help people with seriously poor eyesight.
Janssen's attribution to this discovery is debatable.
He is also the first person to create and build a compound (two or more lens) microscope in 1609.
These compound microscopes can magnify objects up to nine times their original size.
Sacharias Jansen has been tried several times in the years 1613-1619 for counterfeiting coins.
Jansen had grown up right next to the Middleburg mint where his brother-in-law works.
These circumstances make it very easy for Janssen to mimic the process of manufacturing money.
He had fled to the neighboring village of Arnemuiden to avoid the high penalties for counterfeiting coins.
However, he has continued counterfeiting coins in Arnemuiden.
He is apprehended in 1619 for owning several devices with which he counterfeited coins.
Normally, one would be sentenced to death for this crime.
As the father of the Arnemuiden bailiff is found to be an accessory, however, it turns out better for Jansen: thanks to this, the process is delayed to such an extent that Janssen is able to flee yet another time.