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Jan 1, 1000
The first magnifier, the reading stone, is invented
The reading stone is a glass sphere that laid on top of words and magnified them. The inventor is unknown. -
Period: Jan 31, 1000 to
The History of Microscpoes Source: About.com
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Jan 31, 1284
First eyeglasses
The first eyeglasses were made by an Italian named Salvino D'Armate. They were used to aid vision. -
Leading to the Compound Microscope and Telescope
Two Dutch eyeglass makers, put multiple lenses in a tube. The thing they were looking at was very enlarged, which led to the invention of the compound microscope and the telescope. -
Cells discovered
Robert Hooke was looking at a sliver of cork and saw noticed little caplsules in there. He called them cells. -
Anton van Leeuwenhoek
Anton van Leeuwenhoek built a simple microscope to look at yeast, blood, insects, and other small things. He was the first to describe bactieria and showed new ways to make lenses. -
Reducing the chromatic effect
Joeseph Jackson showed that many weak lenses at certain distances, makes the image clearer. This was the prototype of the microscope. -
The Ultramicroscope
Richard Zsigmondy invented this microscope that could study objects beyond the wavelenght of light. He won a Nobel Prize in 1925. -
The electron microscope
Erenst Ruska co-invented this microscope and got a Nobel prize in 1986. This microscope uses electrons to see items insteadof light. They can view things as small as the diamiter of an atom, but kills living things. -
The phase-contrast microscope
Frits Zernike invented this microscope. This allowed the study of colorless and tranparent biological matirials. He got a Nobel prize in 1953. -
Scanning tunneling microscope
Made by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer. It shows 3D objects down to the atomic level. These men got Nobel prizes in 1986. It is the strongest microscope today.
