Microscope

Description

A device that produces a magnified image of small objects using either optical, acoustical, or electronic imaging sources. An optical microscope uses visible light passing through one or more lenses to produce the enlarged image. Some types of optical microscopes are: monocular, binocular, stereoscopic, compound, polarizing, phase, and fluorescent. The compound microscope, using an objective and an eyepiece, was first constructed in the Netherlands sometime between 1590 and 1608 by either of three spectacle makers—Hans Jansen, his son Zacharias, and Hans Lippershey. Electron microscopes use a beam of electrons to form images of 1,000 to 1,000,000 times magnifications. Other special microscopes, such as acoustic microscopes or scanning tunneling microscopes can go to even higher magnifications.

Resources and Citations

• ASTM, Standard Terminology of Microscopy, Annual Book of ASTM Standards, Section 14, General Methods and Instrumentation, ASTM, E175, 75-78, May 1982

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998

• Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com Comment: Microscope. Retrieved June 5, 2003.

• Walter C. McCrone, John Gustave Delly, The Particle Atlas, W. McCrone Associates, Chicago, IV, 1972