The History of Microscopes

Prajeeshvaran IX - C

The first ever microscope

It isn’t clear who invented the first ever microscope but the dutch spectacle maker Zachariah
Janssen is credited for making one of the earliest compound microscope

The different types of microscopes:-

 Simple microscope

 Compound microscope

 Electron microscope

 Stereomicroscope

 Scanning probe microscope

The discoveries attributed to the microscope

The microscope tremendously helped in finding out how the cell worked, it further helped us in
understanding deeper in how each cell organelle helps the cells

“By the help of the microscope, there is nothing so small as to escape our inquiry; hence
there is a new visible world discovered to the understanding”- Robert Hooke

Simple microscope:

A simple microscope is a magnifying glass that has a double convex lens with a short focal
length. Examples of this kind of instrument include the hand lens and reading lens. When an
object is kept near the lens, then its principal focus with an image is produced, which is erect
and bigger than the original object.
Complex microscopes: Typically, a compound microscope is used for viewing samples at high
magnification (40 – 1000x), which is achieved by the combined effect of two sets of lenses: the
ocular lens (in the eyepiece) and the objective lenses (close to the sample).

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(structure of an compound microscope)

The Compound microscope is considered to be one of the standard microscopes that can be
used for general purposes. The arrangement of the lens is such that it magnifies the objects
from the complex system

Electron microscope:
An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of fast electrons as a
source of light. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times
shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a higher
resolving power than light microscopes and can show/tell about the structure of
smaller objects. A scanning transmission electron microscope has
(accomplished or gained with effort) better than 50 pm (ability to display or

measure very small things) in ring-like dark-field imaging mode[1] and

magnifications of up to about 10,000,000xwhereas most light microscopes are
limited by diffraction to about 200 nm (ability to display or measure very small
things) and useful magnifications below 2000x.

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Stereomicroscope:
sometimes called a dissecting microscope or a binocular inspection microscope,

is a low-power compound instrument used for a closer examination of three-

dimensional specimens than is possible with a hand lense

Scanning probe microscope:

Scanning probe microscopy is a branch of microscopy that forms images
of surfaces using a physical probe that scans the specimen. SPM was

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 founded in 1981, with the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope,
an instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level