Interesting Facts About Compound Microscopes

Historians will probably never know who invented the first microscope, but the compound microscope is a more recent innovation. It is integral to laboratories, doctors, and scientists and has been in use for hundreds of years.

Function

• Compound microscopes use multiple lenses to increase magnification over single lens microscopes. In fact, most microscopes you'll see or use are compound microscopes.

History

• The identity of the inventor of the compound microscope is debatable. The first compound microscope might have been built by a Dutch father and son in the 1590s. Galileo also developed a compound microscope.

Types

• Some types of compound microscopes feature binocular eyepieces (for two eyes), but some even feature three eyepieces. The third is for a camera.

Fun Fact

• An observer looking through a microscope is not seeing the specimen fixed at the bottom of the microscope. The observer is seeing an image that is projected by the microscope's lenses to a location just below the microscope's eyepiece.