The Compound Light Microscope
The
microscope pictured to the left is referred to as a compound light
microscope. The term light refers to the method by which light transmits
the image to your eye. Compound deals with the microscope having more
than one lens. Microscope is the combination of two words; "micro"
meaning small and "scope" meaning view.
Early
microscopes, like Leeuwenhoek's, were called simple because they only
had one lens. Simple scopes work like magnifying glasses that you
have seen and/or used. These early microscopes had limitations to
the amount of magnification no matter how they were constructed.
The
creation of the compound microscope by the Janssens helped to advance
the field of microbiology light years ahead of where it had been only
just a few years earlier. The Janssens added a second lens to magnify
the image of the primary (or first) lens.
Simple
light microscopes of the past could magnify an object to 266X as in
the case of Leeuwenhoek's microscope. Modern compound light microscopes,
under optimal conditions, can magnify an object from 1000X to 2000X
(times) the specimens original diameter.
Visit
this web site to find about the history of the light microscope.