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Early Beginnings..... |
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In 1558, Swiss naturalist Konrad Gesner used lenses to study the shells
of snails.
George Huefnagel of Frankfort claimed to have invented the microscope,
publishing several engravings of insects in 1592, perhaps drawn with the
aid of a microscope.
In 1595, Jansen invented the compound microscope.
Kepler, around 1610 in his treatise "Dioptrice," showed with
his theory of geometrical optics that two lenses could be arranged to
make nearby objects appear larger.
Galileo helped make the microscope popular in the first half of the 17th
century.
The Englishman Robert Hook made elegant compound microscopes, that
consisted of two pairs of lenses in a thick cylindrical housing.
Multiple knobs and screws on the housing allowed for fine adjustment and
focus. Hook was a meticulous scientist, observing various organs
of insects, feathers, molds, plant tissues, and the structure of
cork. To Hook, the compartmentalized configuration in the
structure of cork looked like compartments in which monks lived, and he
called them "cells." Hook published his many
observations in his landmark 1665 work, "Micrographia."
"Robert Hooke: Life History, drawing of cork"
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