History of Microscopes

The first magnifier, the reading stone, is invented

Jan 1, 1000

The reading stone is a glass sphere that laid on top of words and magnified them. The inventor is unknown.

The History of Microscpoes Source: About.com

Period: Jan 31, 1000 to Jan 31, 2016

First eyeglasses

Jan 31, 1284

The first eyeglasses were made by an Italian named Salvino D'Armate. They were used to aid vision.

Leading to the Compound Microscope and Telescope

Jan 1, 1590

Two Dutch eyeglass makers, put multiple lenses in a tube. The thing they were looking at was very enlarged, which led to the invention of the compound microscope and the telescope.

Cells discovered

Jan 1, 1665

Robert Hooke was looking at a sliver of cork and saw noticed little caplsules in there. He called them cells.

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

Jan 31, 1674

Anton van Leeuwenhoek built a simple microscope to look at yeast, blood, insects, and other small things. He was the first to describe bactieria and showed new ways to make lenses.

Reducing the chromatic effect

Jan 1, 1830

Joeseph Jackson showed that many weak lenses at certain distances, makes the image clearer. This was the prototype of the microscope.

The Ultramicroscope

Jan 31, 1903

Richard Zsigmondy invented this microscope that could study objects beyond the wavelenght of light. He won a Nobel Prize in 1925.

The electron microscope

Jan 1, 1931

Erenst Ruska co-invented this microscope and got a Nobel prize in 1986. This microscope uses electrons to see items insteadof light. They can view things as small as the diamiter of an atom, but kills living things.

The phase-contrast microscope

Jan 1, 1932

Frits Zernike invented this microscope. This allowed the study of colorless and tranparent biological matirials. He got a Nobel prize in 1953.

Scanning tunneling microscope

Jan 31, 1981

Made by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer. It shows 3D objects down to the atomic level. These men got Nobel prizes in 1986. It is the strongest microscope today.