It was during the Renaissance when the best inventions popped left and right. Inventions of gunpowder, compass and printing led to the discovery of the American and European continent. Remarkably, it was also during this time when the microscope was invented.

A microscope is an instrument that allows the naked human eye to observe the image in an enlarged manner. This allows him to closely inspect tiny objects. Therefore, the details that are minute just by looking at the object will be very detailed once it is placed on the microscope’s stage.

It all started with the lenses
A long, long time ago, there was a person who picked up a crystal that is thick and transparent. He looked through it and found out that by doing so, he could actually make things appear bigger than normal.

Eventually, someone also discovered that by focusing the crystal on the rays of the sun, minutes later a fire can start. This is done on pieces of cloths and parchments. Later on, magnifiers are termed as magnifying glasses and burning glasses. Proofs to this discovery are the writings of Pliny the Elder and Seneca. They are two Roman philosophers who lived around first century AD.

However, the invention and use of spectacles were apparent when the 13th century was about to end. They were given the name ‘lenses’ because these had the shape of lentil seeds.

Back to the microscope, the earliest kind was a tube that had a plate for the specimen to be observed at an end and then a lens at the other which magnifies the specimen to ten times its actual size. Around that time, the lenses were ten diameters in length.

Evolution of the Microscope
In 1590, there were two Dutch glasses makers, Zaccharias Janssen and his son Hans, who were experimenting with the various kinds of lenses in one tube. Soon enough, the duo discovered that the nearby objects appeared to be enlarged. This was the pivotal moment for the compound microscope as well as the telescope.

in 1609, Galileo, heard of these experiments. Being the father of modern physics and astronomy that he was, he worked with these lenses and made a much improved instrument. His invention has a focusing device.

But it was Anton van Leuwenhoek who earned the title father of microscopy. The Holland native began as an apprentice for a dry goods store. There, the use of magnifying glasses was to count how many threads was in the cloth. Leuwenhoek taught himself new techniques in grinding and also polishing the minute lenses to curvatures which provide him with magnifications that reach to 270 diameters. At that time, that was the finest. This eventually resulted to the construction of the microscope. What followed were the biological discoveries that he did and became famous for.

To elaborate, Leuwenhoek was the first to observe bacteria and yeast plants. He was also the first to study life in a single drop of water as well as the blood corpuscles circulating in the capillaries. During his long life, he utilized his lenses in creating pioneer studies for other extraordinary things.

A Closer Look on the Light Microscope
A light microscope has the perfect lenses and therefore the perfect illumination. However, it cannot distinguish objects that are tinier than the wavelength. For example, white light meets an average of .55 micrometers in wave length. Half of that figure is .275 micrometers. Now these are also referred to as microns. Any lines that are linked together to the .275 micrometers end up to be invisible. At best, this only appears to be a blur. In order for the observer to see the minute particles under the microscope, light must be present. Afterwards, the kind of illumination being used must also be checked since this is also an important factor in the visibility of the specimen being observed.

History of the Electron Microscope
The electron microscope was introduced in the 1930s. It was co-invented by two Germans, Max Knott and Ernst Ruska. This kind of microscope has the electrons speeding up in a vacuum til the wavelength is short enough to bear the one hundred-thousandth electron beam that is of white light.

The difference between light microscope and electron microscope
By using the instruments he invented, Leuwenhoek studied the movements of single-celled organisms. According to the studies he conducted, the light microscope can easily see the living cells moving as opposed to that of the electron microscopes.

The electron microscopes are generally used for the uploading of the images seen in the eyepiece and into a system.