Cornelius Drebbel

Cornelis Drebbel
Cornelis Drebbel
Born	1572 Alkmaar, Netherlands
Died	7 November 1633 London, England
Education	Hendrick Goltzius
Occupation	Inventor, innovator
Spouse(s)	Sophia Jansdochter Goltzius
Children	Six
Parent(s)	Jacob Janszoon Drebbel

Cornelis Jacobszoon Drebbel (Dutch pronunciation: [kɔrˈneːlɪs ˈjaːkɔpsoːn ˈdrɛbəl]; 1572 – 7 November 1633) was the Dutch builder of the first navigable submarine in 1620. Drebbel was an innovator who contributed to the development of measurement and control systems, optics and chemistry.

Cornelis Drebbel was born in Alkmaar, Holland in an Anabaptist family in 1572. After some years at the Latin school in Alkmaar, around 1587, he attended the Academy in Haarlem, also located in North-Holland. Teachers at the Academy were Hendrik Goltzius, engraver, painter, alchemist and humanist, Karel van Mander, painter, writer, humanist and Cornelis Corneliszoon of Haarlem. Drebbel became a skilled engraver on copperplate and also took an interest in alchemy.

In 1595 he married Sophia Jansdochter Goltzius, younger sister of Hendrick, and settled at Alkmaar. They had at least six children, of whom four survived. Drebbel worked initially as a painter, engraver and cartographer. But he was in constant need of money because of the prodigal lifestyle of his wife.

In 1598 he obtained a patent for a water-supply system and a sort of perpetual clockwork. In 1600, Drebbel was in Middelburg where he built a fountain at the Noorderpoort. He met there with Hans Lippershey, spectacle maker and constructor of telescopes, and his colleague Zacharias Jansen. There Drebbel learned lens grinding and optics, with the construction of a magic lantern and a camera obscura.

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