History oI the Microscope

How the light microscope evolved.

y Mary ellis

During that historic period known as the Renaissance,
aIter the "dark" Middle Ages, there occurred the
inventions oI printing,gunpowder and the
mariner's compass, Iollowed by the discovery oI
America. Equally remarkable was the invention oI the
light microscope: an instrument that enables the human
eye, by means oI a lens or combinations oI lenses, to
observe enlarged images oI tiny objects. It made visible
the Iascinating details oI worlds within worlds.
Invention of Glass Lenses
ong beIore, in the hazy unrecorded past, someone
picked up a piece oI transparent crystal thicker in the
middle than at the edges, looked through it, and
discovered that it made things look larger. Someone
also Iound that such a crystal would Iocus the sun's rays
and set Iire to a piece oI parchment or cloth. MagniIiers
and "burning glasses" or "magniIying glasses" are
mentioned in the writings oI Seneca and Pliny the
Elder, Roman philosophers during the Iirst century A.
D., but apparently they were not used much until the
invention oI spectacles, toward the end oI the 13th
century. They were named lenses because they are
shaped like the seeds oI a lentil.
The earliest simple microscope was merely a tube with
a plate Ior the object at one end and, at the other, a lens
which gave a magniIication less than ten diameters --
ten times the actual size. These excited general wonder
when used to view Ileas or tiny creeping things and so
were dubbed "Ilea glasses."

irth of the Light Microscope
About 1590, two Dutch spectacle makers, Zaccharias Janssen
and his son Hans, while experimenting with several lenses in
a tube, discovered that nearby objects appeared greatly
enlarged. That was the Iorerunner oI the compound
microscope and oI thetelescope. In 1609, Galileo, Iather oI modern
physics and astronomy, heard oI these early experiments,
worked out the principles oI lenses, and made a much better
instrument with a Iocusing device.
Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
The Iather oI microscopy, Anton van eeuwenhoek oI Holland, started
as an apprentice in a dry goods store where magniIying
glasses were used to count the threads in cloth. He taught
himselI new methods Ior grinding and polishing tiny lenses oI
great curvature which gave magniIications up to 270
diameters, the Iinest known at that time. These led to the
building oI his microscopes and the biological discoveries Ior
which he is Iamous. He was the Iirst to see and describe
bacteria, yeast plants, the teeming liIe in a drop oI water, and
the circulation oI blood corpuscles in capillaries. During a
long liIe he used his lenses to make pioneer studies on an
extraordinary variety oI things, both living and non living, and
reported his Iindings in over a hundred letters to the Royal
Society oI England and the French Academy
#obert Hooke
Robert Hooke, the English Iather oI microscopy, re-conIirmed
Anton van eeuwenhoek's discoveries oI the existence oI tiny
living organisms in a drop oI water. Hooke made a copy oI
eeuwenhoek's light microscope and then improved upon his
design.
Charles A. Spencer
ater, Iew major improvements were made until the middle oI
the 19th century. Then several European countries began to
manuIacture Iine optical equipment but none Iiner than the
marvelous instruments built by the American, Charles A.
Spencer, and the industry he Iounded. Present day
instruments, changed but little, give magniIications up to 1250
diameters with ordinary light and up to 5000 with blue light.
eyond the Light Microscope
A light microscope, even one with perIect lenses and perIect
illumination, simply cannot be used to distinguish objects that
are smaller than halI the wavelength oI light. White light has
an average wavelength oI 0.55 micrometers, halI oI which is
0.275 micrometers. (One micrometer is a thousandth oI a
millimeter, and there are about 25,000 micrometers to an inch.
Micrometers are also called microns.) Any two lines that are
closer together than 0.275 micrometers will be seen as a
single line, and any object with a diameter smaller than 0.275
micrometers will be invisible or, at best, show up as a blur. To
see tiny particles under a microscope, scientists must bypass
light altogether and use a diIIerent sort oI "illumination," one
with a shorter wavelength.

The introduction oI the electron microscope in the 1930's
Iilled the bill. Co-invented by Germans, Max Knoll and Ernst
Ruska in 1931, Ernst Ruska was awarded halI oI the Nobel
Prize Ior Physics in 1986 Ior his invention. (The other halI oI
the Nobel Prize was divided between Heinrich Rohrer and
Gerd innig Ior the STM.)
In this kind oI microscope, electrons are speeded up in a
vacuum until their wavelength is extremely short, only one
hundred-thousandth that oI white light. eams oI these Iast-
moving electrons are Iocused on a cell sample and are
absorbed or scattered by the cell's parts so as to Iorm an image
on an electron-sensitive photographic plate.
!ower of the Electron Microscope
II pushed to the limit, electron microscopes can make it
possible to view objects as small as the diameter oI an atom.
Most electron microscopes used to study biological material
can "see" down to about 10 angstroms--an incredible Ieat, Ior
although this does not make atoms visible, it does allow
researchers to distinguish individual molecules oI biological
importance. In eIIect, it can magniIy objects up to 1 million
times. Nevertheless, all electron microscopes suIIer Irom a
serious drawback. Since no living specimen can survive under
their high vacuum, they cannot show the ever-changing
movements that characterize a living cell.
Light Microscope Vs Electron Microscope
Using an instrument the size oI his palm, Anton van
eeuwenhoek was able to study the movements oI one-celled
organisms. Modern descendants oI van eeuwenhoek's light
microscope can be over 6 Ieet tall, but they continue to be
indispensable to cell biologists because, unlike electron
microscopes, light microscopes enable the user to see living
cells in action. The primary challenge Ior light microscopists
since van eeuwenhoek's time has been to enhance the
contrast between pale cells and their paler surroundings so
that cell structures and movement can be seen more easily. To
do this they have devised ingenious strategies involving video
cameras, polarized light, digitizing computers, and other
techniques that are yielding vast improvements in contrast,
Iueling a renaissance in light microscopy.