The Evolution of the Microscope

“To help our Blindness so as to devise

a pair of new & Artificial eyes
     By whose augmenting power we now see
more than all world Has ever done Before.”
-Henry Powers 1664
 Content Page
• How was the microscope invented?
• What was the first microscope like?
• Who pioneered the improvement of the
microscope?
• What makes up a microscope?
• What are the different types of microscopes
today?
 How was the microscope invented?

• The microscope was invented in the late 16th

Century.
• It is believed that a microscope had been
created by accidentally inverting a telescope!
 What was the first microscope like?
• Well it looked a little like this:
 Who pioneered the improvement of
the microscope?
• Robert Hooke (1635-1703), an English scientist and
mechanical genius, was born on the Isle of Wight and
educated at the University of Oxford.
• Hooke also developed and modified the Jansen
compound microscope into a more modern one,
similar to the one we currently use.
• He also made microscopes with spherical lenses
which improved resolution and magnification of the
compound microscope.
 Who pioneered the improvement of
the microscope?
• Antoni va Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) was a Dutch
maker of microscopes.
• Leeuwenhoek managed to grind and polish glass
into a lens with a magnification of 270X (a power
that far exceeded that of early compound
microscopes of 20-30X). 
• Made microscope lens with more pure glass
instead of the poor quality, greenish glass of the
day.
What makes up a microscope?

Microscope Image from www.microscopehelp.com

 What are the different types of
microscopes today?
• Compound Microscope
An example would be the microscope in the previous
slide
• Electron Microscope
It uses electrons to "illuminate" an object. It has an
electron gun that emits electrons in a vacuum, which
then strike the specimen and records its image to display
it in a monitor.
The End

Thank you!