A Brief History of the Microscope

Galileo

1564 –1642

Approximately how

many years ago did he

live?

450

Galileo

•Italian astronomer

•“The father of modern

astronomy” – discovered

Jupiter’s moons, sunspots,

planets revolved around the

sun

•Built a telescope that saw

things “up close”

( a microscope)

Galileo

Galileo’s microscope

Robert Hooke

1635 –1703

Robert Hooke

*English physicist

*looked at a little piece

of cork through his

microscope – saw small

“cells” (little rooms)

*an excellent illustrator -

wrote a book called

Micrographia

Robert Hooke

Robert Hooke’s

microscope

20X magnification

Antony van Leeuwenhoek

1632 –1723

Antony van Leeuwenhoek

•Dutch microscopist

•No advanced education

•Discovered single-celled

animals in pond water

•Discovered bacteria and

blood cells

•Made over 500

microscopes

Antony van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope

A: Screw for adjusting height of object

B: Metal plate serving as the body

C: Skewer to impale the object and rotate it

D: The lens itself; which was spherical

* magnification of 270

300X magnification

*scales on a

butterfly

wing

*pollen on a

butterfly

tongue

*wasp

eye

*brown

algae

in pond

water