Microscope - Optics, Magnification, Invention: The concept of magnification has long been known. About 1267 English philosopher Roger Bacon wrote in Perspectiva, “[We] may number the smallest particles of dust and sand by reason of the greatness of the angle under which we may see them,” and in 1538 Italian physician Girolamo Fracastoro wrote in Homocentrica, “If anyone should look through two spectacle glasses, one being superimposed on the other, he will see everything much larger ... A history of the microscope starting with use of a simple lens to the first compound microscope in 1590 and including the microscopes of the 19th century. Electron Microscopes: In 1931 Max Knoll and Ernst Ruska invented the first electron microscope that blasted past the optical limitations of the light. Physics dictates that light microscopes are limited by the physics of light to 500x or 1000x magnification and a resolution of 0.2 micrometers. The development of the microscope allowed scientists to make new insights into the body and disease. It’s not clear who invented the first microscope, but the Dutch spectacle maker Zacharias Janssen (b.1585) is credited with making one of the earliest compound microscopes (ones that used two ...
