History of the

Microscope
Microscope
✹ A device that can show objects that are
invisible to the naked eye
✹ an instrument that makes an enlarged
image of a small object, thus revealing
details too small to be seen by the
unaided eye. The most familiar kind of
microscope is the optical microscope,
which uses visible light focused through
lenses.
✹ In ancient times, the magnifying glass,
considered the earliest ancestor of the
microscope, was utilized as a “burning glass."
✹ The concept that it could be used to magnify
objects to help the eyes see them came at arou
the 13th century. The glass lens also had its
beginnings during this time.
Magnifying Glass
✹ Roger Bacon was credited for its invention.
Describing this instrument, he said: “If anyone
examines letters or other minute objects through
the medium of crystal or glass or other
transparent substance, if it be shaped like the
lesser segment of a sphere, with the convex side
toward the eye, he will see the letters far better
and they will seem larger to him. For this reason,
such an instrument is useful to all persons and to
those with weak eyes for they can see any letter,
however small, if magnified enough.”
✹ (Bradbury S. 1968, The Microscope: Past and
Present. Pergamon Press Ltd, Oxford, London.)
✹ The glass lens was incorporated into
spectacles or eyeglasses at around 1268 to
1289 to help people with impaired vision.
Hundreds of years passed before scientists
discovered how the glass lens could be
improved and transformed into a device
that could help visualize small objects by
making these appear bigger.
✹ When the increasing number of discoveries
had to be investigated on a deeper level,
the microscope came into realization.
✹ At the same time, the telescope was also
undergoing development due to the
growing curiosity of men to study the sky.
During the 16th century, a Dutch optician
named Hans Lippershey created the first
telescope; Galileo Galilei improved this
invention to observe distant objects.
✹ It is undeniable that the explosion of
technological advances led to the further
study on how to magnify objects that
were too small for the human eye to see.
The microscope was first developed in
England during the latter part of the
16th century.
✹ It was hypothesized that the
microscope was derived from the
inversion of the telescope as indicated
by the account that “one of the first
microscopes was six feet long and had a
one inch barrel with a lens at either
end.” (Samuel H. Cohen. 1994. Seeing
the Invisible: The New Microscope.
Collier's Year Book.)
✹ The earliest simple microscope was
described as a tube with a plate for the
object at one end and a lens at the other
end that gave za magnification ten times
the actual size. Even with his very low
magnifying capacity, it was considered a
monumental development. It had an odd
look but was capable of magnifying bacteria
and single celled animals.
Earliest microscope:
A. The Inventors:
1. 1597 Hans Janssen
&his son Zaccharius
Janssen
a. Dutch lens grinders
b. made the 1st compound
microscope (has more than
one lens)
✹ they discovered that, if they put a lens
at the top and bottom of a tube and
looked through it, objects on the other
end became magnified.
✹ The device laid critical groundwork for
future breakthroughs, but only
magnified by between 3x and 9x.
✹ One lens was positioned at the
eyepiece of the microscope, and the
second lens was put near the sample to
be studied.
✹ It was believed that their idea on the
particular arrangement of their lenses
was based on the reverse principle of
telescope.
2. 1609 Galileo

a. Improved on the
Janssen’s ideas
b. Made a
microscope that
could be focused
✹ Galileo Galilei develops
a compound
microscope with a
convex and a concave
lens.
1625 – First use of
term ‘microscope’
✹ Giovanni Faber coins
the name
‘microscope’ for
Galileo Galilei’s
compound
microscope.
1665 – First use of term
‘cells’
✹ English physicist Robert Hooke
publishes Micrographia, in which he
coins the term ‘cells’ when describing
tissue. The book includes drawings of
hairs on a nettle and the honeycomb
structure of cork. He uses a simple,
single-lens microscope illuminated by a
candle.
✹ Hooke also developed and modified the Jansen
compound microscope into a more modern, similar
to the one in current use. The call for the
development of better lenses intensified.
✹ If a century after the invention of the compound
microscope, both Robert Hooke and Antonn
Leeuwenhoek realized that lenses with very short
focal lengths were the key to more magnification.
This idea led to the discovery of using double
convex or spherical lenses, which improved both
resolution and magnification of the compound
microscope.
 3. Anton Van
a.
Leeuwenhoek
Dutch scientist who
1632-1723
greatly improved lens
grinding
b. 1st to see bacteria,
yeast, blood cells, and
life in pond water
c. Made people aware of
microscopic life
✹ Anton van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch maker of
microscopes who made pioneering discoveries
concerning protozoa, red blood cells, capillary
systems, and the life cycle of insects.
✹ He devised a single, tiny, double-convex lens
mounted between brass plates and held close to
the eye. He was able to grind and polish glass into
a lens with a magnification of 270x. This was
exceedingly greater than that of the early
compound microscopes.
✹ This paved the way for the development of
the world's first practical microscope. His
lens was made of better glass compared to
the poor quality, greenish glass commonly
used during those days .His microscope was
an extremely simple device, using only one
lens inserted in a tiny hole in the brass plate
that made up the body of the instrument.
Leeuwenhoe
✹
Unlikely
k
scientist
✹ A tradesman (a
fabric merchant, a
surveyor, a wine
assayer, and a
minor city official)
✹ No university
degrees
✹ Knew no language
other than Dutch
…oh Leeuwenhoek
✹ But he had skill, he was hardworking,
had an endless curiosity, and he kept an
open mind
✹ His research opened up the world of
microscopic life to scientists
Anton’s creations:
 ✹ Made over 500 simple
“microscopes”
 ✹ Microscopes were simply
powerful magnifying lenses
 ✹ Specimens were mounted
on the sharp point that sticks up
in front of the lens
Anton’s Microscopes:
✹ Compound microscopes invented around 1595
✹ But could only magnify 20-30x
✹ But Leeuwenhoek’s simple microscope could
magnify 200x (what a great lens grinder)!
✹ Hired a skilled illustrator to draw the things he
saw
All good researchers
share their findings….
✹ 1673 Leeuwenhoek began writing
letters to the Royal Society of London
describing what he’d seen with his
microscopes
 Oooh What He Saw!
✹ Foraminifera

✹ Blood cells
 CONGRATULATIONS
ANTON!
✹ After 50 years of
writing to the Royal
Society of London,
he was elected a full
member
✹ Joined Robert
Hooke, Robert Boyle,
Christopher Wren
and other great
scientists of his day
Modern Microscope
✹ Several mechanical improvements increased stability and
facilitated smooth focusing and magnification in the
microscope. Stages and slides were introduced in order to
secure the sample to be examined.
✹ Another key improvement was the development of
objective lenses that enhanced and controlled the
magnification and resolution of the sample being
observed. New sampling techniques that included the
addition of water and chemicals to enhance the view of
the sample, and staining the sample to produce a
high-quality, clear image were employed as well
Types of Microscopes
✹ Compound Microscope
✹ Electron Microscope
✹ Scanning Tunneling Microscope
✹ Scanning probe Microscope
B. Compound Light Microscope
1. Uses two or more lenses; the
objective lens and ocular lens
2. Used to study cells
3. Most magnify to 400x
4. Most powerful magnifies 2000x
5. Most have 3 objectives
a. Low
b. Medium
c. High
6. Specimen MUST be thin
(allows light to pass through)
✹ The objective lenses is composed
of several lens elements that
formed an enlarge real image of the
object examined.

✹ This microscope’s body has a firm

stand with a flat stage to hold the
material examined.
✹ Knobs are located at the sides to
promote ease in moving the stage
and the tube toward and away
from the specimen for better
focusing.
C. Electron Microscope

1. Uses electrons and

magnets
2. Very powerful –
magnifies 2 million x or
more
3. Show specimens in 3-D
4. Requires TV to view
image
 2 types of Electron Microscope:
✹ Transmission Electron Microscope
(TEM)
- Looks at a relatively large area of the
sample all at once
✹ Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
- Ability to scan the surface of a thinly
sliced sample bit by bit.
C. Scanning Tunneling Microscope

✹ Invented in 1981 by Gerd Bining and

Heinrich Rohrer of IBM’s Zurich
Laboratory of Switzerland
✹ Very powerful; microscope that can
obtain images of conductive surfaces at
an atomic level
✹ Can be used to manipulate individual
atoms, trigger chemical reactions, and
create ions.
D. Scanning Probe Microscope
✹ Uses a probe to scan the surface of a
sample and provides a
three-dimensional image of atoms or
molecules on the surface of the object.
✹ The probe, is an extremely sharp metal
point that can be as narrow as a single
atom at a tip.
✹ It allows the provision of detailed
images of substances that can conduct
electricity
✹ The sensing mechanism records
movements of the probe and sends the
gathered data into a computer, which
creates a three-dimensional image of
the surface of the sample.
✹Any questions?