When was the first microscope used?

In the 16th century scientists were starting to look inwards at the secrets of the human body. They were able to use a new instrument to help them – two-lens microscope which had been invented in about 1590.

The Dutchman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) started by using ground glass lenses to examine the world about him.

In the 1670s he made his first crude microscope with a tiny lens and this allowed him to be the first person to see microscopic life such as bacteria, yeast and living blood cells. During his career, van Leeuwenhoek ground a total of 419 lenses, and his microscopes became progressively more effective.

The English scientist Robert Hooke used an early microscope to discover the existence of living cells in plants.

Fact File

Some microscopes are so powerful they can magnify the smallest objects many thousands of times. This plant cell is invisible to the naked eye.

 

Picture Credit : Google