The inventor of the first compound microscope is not agreed upon, with some believing it was Zacharias Janssen and others believing it was Hans Lippershey. The Janssens were likely familiar with lenses due to their occupation and may have developed the microscope while attempting to create more powerful eyeglasses. The earliest surviving compound microscope was made by the Janssens and could only magnify objects up to nine times. Later improvements by Anton van Leeuwenhoek and Robert Hooke established the compound microscope as an essential tool for scientists.
There is no general consensus on the inventor of the first compound microscope. Most authorities believe the instrument was invented by Dutch eyeglass and eyeglass maker Zacharias Janssen, in Midddleburg, Holland, around 1595, with some believing he was aided by his father Hans Janssen – the two have worked together on the design and eyewear. Some other authorities, however, believe that Hans Lippershey, a German living in the same town and also an eyeglass maker, invented the first compound microscope around the same time; although he is credited with inventing the telescope, there is much more doubt about his invention of the microscope. Lippershey and the Janssens, who knew each other, are thought to have contributed ideas to the development of both instruments.
The compound microscope uses at least two separate lenses to provide much greater magnification than is possible with just one. It consists of a relatively powerful objective lens with a short focal length – known as an objective – and a larger, but less powerful objective lens with a relatively long focal length known as an eyepiece. The two lenses are normally connected by a tube; the object to be examined is placed under the objective lens and focused by adjusting the distance from the object.
The Janssens, due to their occupation, would have been familiar with the manufacture and properties of lenses, and it is thought that the first compound microscope may have emerged from their attempts to build more powerful eyeglasses. None of the Janssens’ early instruments have survived, but the earliest extant compound microscope can be seen in the Middleburg museum and is thought to have been made by the Janssens. It doesn’t look much like a modern microscope with a stand, a stage on which specimens can be placed, and interchangeable objectives to provide a range of magnifications. Instead, it resembles a small telescope in that it consists of two tubes, each with a lens at one end, held inside a slightly larger tube, so that they can be moved back and forth to focus on the object in question. interest and vary the magnification . While this microscope was clearly designed to be handheld, there are references to another early microscope, built by the Janssens, which stood on a tripod and would probably have looked more like the modern instrument.
The earliest surviving compound microscope could only magnify objects about three times to about nine times. However, it worked on the same principles as a modern microscope and paved the way for the development of instruments that would provide much higher magnifications, opening up a previously unknown microscopic world. Later, in the 17th century, another Dutch amateur scientist, Anton van Leeuwenhoek, used microscopes of his own design to study microorganisms in water droplets; however, while more powerful than Janssens’ compound microscopes, Leeuwenhoek’s had only a single spherical lens. British scientist Robert Hooke, a contemporary of Leeuwenhoek, made a number of improvements to the compound microscope that allowed for much higher magnifications. His work on 17 Micrographia documents his observations of insects, cells and microorganisms and helped establish the compound microscope as an essential tool for scientists.
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