MICROSCOPE HISTORY and TIMELINE
Uploaded by
Benes Salamanca BolascoMICROSCOPE HISTORY and TIMELINE
Uploaded by
Benes Salamanca BolascoMICROSCOPE HISTORY and TIMELINE
What is a microscope?
-A microscope is an optical instrument that is used for viewing very small objects.
-It as well allows you to see things and magnifies several hundred times.
Where is Microscope Used?
- To learn about microorganisms
- Geologist use microscope to inspect rocks and minerals such as stone, copper, gold, etc.
- Engineers use microscope to study surface properties and formation of metals.
- Evidences such as dust, fingerprints, and hair can be examined using a microscope
- Microscope can be used to ensure safety and quality of products in factories
- The facility to see microorganism has allowed scientists to analyze how illness-causing germs grow and
spread, so they can stop them from spreading or reproducing. This has led to the discovery of
antiseptics, antibiotics, and sterilizing methods used for bandages and more.
THE TIMELINE
100AD
-The first vision instrument was developed, and was called “Reading Stone”. It was a glass sphere which
magnified anything when laid on top of it.
1284AD
-Italian, Salvino D’ Armate is credited for the invention of the first wearable Eye Glasses
1590AD
-Dutch Father and son, Zacharias Janssen and Hans Janssen, experimented with multiple lenses which
were placed in a tube. They observed that the image appeared greatly when viewed from the tube,
creating both the compound microscope and the telescope.
1665
-English physicist, Robert Hooke looked at silver cork through microscope lenses and noticed “pores” or
cell in it.
1674
-Antonie van Leeuwenhoek built a simple microscope with only one lenses so that he can examine
blood, yeast, insect and many other tiny object. He was the first person to describe bacteria and invented
a new method of providing magnification.
1800
- Technical innovation improved microscope and become popular amongst scientists. Lenses combining
two types of glasses reduced the “chromatic effect”
1830
-Joseph Jackson Lister reduced the “chromatic effect” by showing several weak lenses used together at
certain distance have good magnification
1872
-Ernst Abbe, wrote a mathematical formula called “Abbe Sine Condition”. His formula provided
calculation that allowed for the maximum resolution in microscopes.
1903
-Richard Zsigmondy developed ultramicroscope that could study objects below the wavelength of light.
1931
-Frits Zernike invented the phase-contrast microscope that allowed the study of colorless and transparent
biological materials. He won Nobel Prize in Physics in 1953.
1932
-Ernst Ruska co-invented the electron microscope for which he won the Nobel prize in physics in 1986
1981
-Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer invented the scanning tunneling microscope that gives a three-
dimensional image of objects down to the atomic level. They won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986.
Their scanning tunneling microscope is the strongest microscope till today.