HISTORY : The early microscope

     HISTORY: The Early Microscopes

The early microscope was a compound microscope, which uses at least two lenses. The mode of operation of this microscope was that; the objective lens is positioned close to the object and produces an image that is picked up and magnified further by the second lens, called the Eyepiece.

Soon after the invention of the first microscope by Janssen, Galileo Galilei improved upon the compound microscope designed in 1609. Galileo then called his device an Occhiolino, or “little eye".

So in 1665, Robert Hooke an English scientist which could be seen as the father of cell also improved the microscope and explained the structure of snowflakes, fleas, lice and plants.

Early compounds microscopes provide more magnification than single lens microscope; however, they also distorted the image more. Moreover, a Dutch scientist Antoine Can Leeuwenhoek designed a high- powered single lens microscope. He was the first to describe sperm or (spermatozoa) from dogs and Humans. Antoine van Leeuwenhoek also studied yeast, red blood cells, bacteria from the mouth and protozoa. It was said that his microscope could magnify up to 270 times larger than actual size.