Inventor: Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa in 1564. He studied at Pisa University and he was a brilliant student. In 1592 he was appointed professor at the University of Padua where he stayed until 1610. In 1592, Galileo invented a crude air thermometer. In 1608 he started work on a telescope. Using basic sketches from the Netherlands, Galileo built a much more powerful telescope and used it for astronomical observations. He discovered the satellites of Jupiter, and saw the surface of the moon. He also confirmed that Copernicus’ theory that the Sun, not the Earth, was the centre of the Solar System. Until the 16th century, humans believed that the Earth was the centre of the Universe and that the Sun revolved around it. The Church said that God had created Man in the image of himself, so, naturally, he had put the Earth in the centre of the universe. Galileo’s defence of Copernicus’ Sun-centred theory brought him problems with the Church. In 1633, Galileo was sentenced to imprisonment but because he was old, the Pope changed his sentence to house arrest in Florence where he continued his studies. Despite the fact that he went blind in 1637, he continued making more discoveries and inventions. He built a thermoscope to carry out experiments on changes in temperature. He experimented with the speed of light, pendulums and ideas of motion and relativity, providing the basic framework for Newton’s laws of motion and Einstein’s theory of relativity. The validity of his scientific work was not formally recognised by The Roman Catholic Church until 1993.