i-heart-histo:

A brief history of microscopy by i-heart-histo

c2000 BC

The Chinese use water microscopes made of a lens and a water filled tube to better visualize smaller objects.

1590

Hans Jansen and his son Zacharias Jansen invent the compound microscope.

1609

Galileo Galilei develops a compound microscope with a convex and concave lens. Calling it the occhiolino - the little eye.

1625

The term ‘microscope’ is coined by Giovanni Faber of Bamberg, an anology with the word ‘telescope’

1665

Robert Hooke publishes Micrographia and coins the word ‘cell’ after his examination of cork bark.

1674

Anton van Leuwenhoek develops the compound microscope to optimize it for observing biological specimens.

1860s

Ernst Abbe discovers the Abbe sine condition for manipulating the axis of optical systems to improving sharpess of images. This breakthrough in microscope design was exploited by microscope manufacturers Zeiss and Leitz resulting in a microscope boom.

1920

Olympus manufacture their first microscope - the Asahi.

1957

The Olympus DF Biological Microscope becomes the first microscope to feature an attached light source rather than a mirror that reflects light on the specimen.

1976

The popular CH series of Olympus microscopes appear in universities and colleges around the world. Chances are your college still uses these lab teaching scopes (or the slightly newer CH2 version).

1993

Introduction of a unique Y-shaped design for the microscope body for enhancing optics.

2004

Confocal and virtual microscopy are now common place.