Hans Lippershey, an optician from Middelburg, files on October 2, 1608 the first documented patent application for an instrument that brings distant objects closer (a combination of convex and concave lenses, 3x magnification). The States General deny exclusivity as it is easily replicable; Jacob Metius files a similar application weeks later, and Zacharias Janssen will claim priority years afterward. Modern historians consider Lippershey's claim the best documented of the three.