Microscope for edline pic

The History of Microscopes

By Jerry Hansen

  • The First Compund Microscope

    The First Compund Microscope
    Dutch eyeglass makers Zacharias and Hans Janssen made one of the first compound microscopes. It was a tube with a lens at each end.

  • Hooke's Compound Microscope

    Hooke's Compound Microscope
    Robert Hooke's compound microscope included an oil lamp for lighting. A lense focuses the light from the flame onto the specimen.

  • Leeuwenhoek's Simple Microscope

    Leeuwenhoek's Simple Microscope
    Although Anton Von Leeuwenhoek's simple microscope only used one tiny lens, it could maginify a specimen up to 266 times.

  • Modern Compound Light Microscope

    Modern Compound Light Microscope
    German Scientists Ernst Abbe and Carl Zeiss made a compound light microscope that greatly improved the image. A mirror focuses light on the specimen. Modern compound microscopes can effectively magify images up to 1000 times.

  • Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM)

    Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM)
    German physicist Ernst Ruska created the first electron microscope. TEMs send electrons through a very thinly sliced specimen. TEMs can maginy a specimen up to 500,000 times.

  • Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)

    Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
    An SEM sends electrons over the surface of a specimen, rather than through it. The result is a 3-dimensional image of the surface of the specimen. SEMs can magnify a specimen up to 150, 000 times.

  • Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM)

    Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM)
    IBM's STM TechnologyAn STM measures the electrons that leak, or "tunnel", from the surface of a specimen. STMs can maginify a specimen up to 1,000,000 times.