- Microscopes
- Kids & Students
- Shop By Microscope Category
Shop our Best Selling Premium Microscope Bundles and get a QUALITY microscope and accessories, all in one bundle.
SHOP PREMIUM BUNDLES - Shop By Age
Shop our Best Selling Premium Microscope Bundles and get a QUALITY microscope and accessories, all in one bundle.
SHOP PREMIUM BUNDLESNew and Innovative products to help your child continue learning while having fun at the same time.
KEEP THE FUN GOING! - Student Microscopes
- Kid's Activity Kits
Shop our Best Selling Premium Microscope Bundles and get a QUALITY microscope and accessories, all in one bundle.
SHOP PREMIUM STUDENT BUNDLES - Premium Student Bundles
- Classroom Supplies
- Shop By Microscope Category
- Cameras
- Telescopes
- Telescopes
Explore the universe with our newest Equatorial and Alt-Azimuth Mount Series of Telescopes
Explore Now > - Sports Optics
- Telescopes
- Lab Supplies & Equipment
- Shop By Brand
Redefining innovation with quality lab equipment built for unparalleled accuracy and precision
SHOP NOW >Shop our wide assortment of high-quality laboratory supplies for numerous applications
Shop Globe Scientific > - Lab Supplies by Category
- Analyzer Consumables
- Balances
- Bags
- Beakers
- Bench Scale Bases
- Bottles
- Bottletop Burettes
- Bottletop Dispensers
- Boxes
- Blank Microscope Slides & Cover Slips
- Blood Collection
- Caps
- Carboys
- Centrifuges
- Centrifuge Tubes
- Cold Storage
- Containers
- Cryogenic Vials
- Culture Tubes
- Cylinders
- Dispensers
- Digital Dry-Baths
- ESR Products
- False Bottom Tubes
- Flat Bottom
- Funnels
- Gel Documentation
- Glassware
- Glass Test Tubes
- Histology
- Homogenizers
- Hotplates-Stirrers
- Inoculation Loops and Spreaders
- Liquid Handling Products
- Manual-Electronic Pipettors-Pipettes
- Microscope Slides
- Overhead Stirrers
- Pipette Controller (Serological Filller)
- Pipette Tips
- Plastic Test Tubes
- PCR Tubes, Strips & Plates
- Racks
- Repeater Pipettor
- Rockers
- Rotary Evaporators
- Serological Pipettes
- Shakers
- Spectrophotometers
- Syringe Tips
- Sample Tubes
- School/Classroom Supplies
- Screwcap Test Tubes
- Self-Standing
- Test Tube Racks
- Test Tubes & Vials
- Transport & Storage Tubes
- Thermal Mixers
- Transfer Pipets
- Urinalysis
- Vacuum Pumps
- Weighing Dishes
- Lab Equipment
- Balances
- Bench Scale Bases
- Centrifuges
- Digital Dry-Baths
- Gel Documentation
- Homogenizers
- Hotplates-Stirrers
- Overhead Stirrers
- Pipettors
- Rockers
- Rotary Evaporators
- Shakers
- Serological Pipettes
- Spectrophotometers
- Thermal Mixers
- Vacuum Pumps
- Liquid Handling Products
- Manual-Electronic Pipettors-Pipettes
- Pipette Tips
- Racks
- Pipette Fillers-Controllers
- Repeater Pipettor
- Syringe Tips
Cost effective products and solutions designed to improve laboratory efficiency, safety and results.
SHOP BENCHMARK SCIENTIFIC >
- Shop By Brand
- Slides & Accessories
- Slides
- Cameras
- Illuminators
- Adapters
- Eyepieces / Objectives
- Bulbs
- Magnifying Lamps
- Monitors and Tablets
- View All Categories
- Adapters
- DSLR Adapters
- USB Camera Adapters
- Ring Light Adapters
- Power Adapters
- Barlow Lens
- Books & Experiments Cards
- Bags & Cases
- Bags
- Cases
- Cameras
- Circuit Board Holders
- Cleaning Kits
- Condensers
- Darkfield
- Phase Contrast Kits
- Polarizing Kits
- Dust Covers
- Eye-Guards
- Eyepieces
- 20mm
- 23mm
- 30mm
- 30.5mm
- Filters
- Microscope Filters
- Illuminator Filters
- Fluorescence Kits
- Conversion Kits
- Filter Cubes
- Focusing Racks
- Fuses
- Illuminators
- Bulbs
- LED Illuminators
- Fiber Optic Illuminators
- Fluorescent Illuminators
- Ring Lights
- Stand Lights
- Goosenecks
- Gooseneck Attachments
- Immersion Oils
- Loupes
- Magnifying Lamps
- Clamp Lamps
- Desktop Lamps
- Rolling Stand Lamps
- Mechanical Stages
- Monitors and Tablets
- Calibration Slides & Stage Micrometers
- Stage Warmers
- Stain Kits
- Stands
- Articulating Arm Stands
- Boom Stands
- Table Stands
- Tweezers
- Other Accessories
- Shop By Industry
- Shop By Industry
- Botany
- Agronomy & Forestry
- Horticulture
- Phytopathology
- Chemistry
- Biochemistry
- Biotechnology
- Cannabis
- Pharmaceutics
- Consumables
- Beer & Wine
- Cosmetics
- Food & Beverage
- Electronics
- Circuit Boards & General Electronics
- Mobile Phone Repair
- Semiconductors & Wafers
- Environmental
- Asbestos
- Ecosystem Research
- Mud Logging
- Soil Treatment
- Water Treatment
- Forensics
- Ballistics
- Fingerprint Analysis
- Genetic Identification
- Hair & Fiber Analysis
- Handwriting Analysis
- Industrial
- Aerospace
- Automotive
- Dental Lab & Production
- Glass Industry
- Industrial Inspection
- Mechanical Parts
- Paper Industry
- Petrochemical
- Plastics
- Printing Industry
- Quality Assurance & Failure Analysis
- Textiles & Fibers
- Tool Making
- Wood Production
- Jewelry & Gemology
- Engraving
- Gemology
- Jewelry Repair
- Stone Setting
- Watch Repair
- Hobby
- Coins & Collecting
- Stamps
- Modeling & Assembly
- Sculpting
- Repair
- Telescopes
- Metallurgy
- Archaeology
- Geology
- Mining
- Petrology
- Medical & Microbiology
- Anatomopathology
- Bacteriology
- Biochemistry
- Cell Culture
- Cytology
- Dental Microbiology
- Dermatology
- Dissection
- Gout & Rheumatology
- Hair & Fiber Analysis
- Hair Transplant
- Fluorescence
- Hematology & Live Blood Analysis
- Histopathology
- Mycology
- Medical Devices
- Microsurgery
- Neuropathology
- Oncology
- Parasitology
- Pathology
- Semen Analysis
- Virology
- Veterinary & Zoology
- Breeding & Semen Analysis
- Entomology
- Fecal Smears & Floats
- Marine Biology
- Ornithology
- Veterinary Medicine
- Zoology
- Shop By Industry
- New
- Cyber Monday Sale
Shop Our Holiday Gift Guide
- Compound Microscopes
- Shop By Brand
- AmScope
- Euromex
- Omax
- Shop by Head Type
- Binocular
- Monocular
- Trinocular
- Multi-head & Training
- Shop By Specialty
- Brightfield
- Darkfield
- Phase Contrast
- Inverted
- EPIfluorescence
- Polarizing
- Digital Integrated
- Metallurgical
- Shop By Application
- Education
- Research
- Veterinary
- Compound With Digital Head
- Shop Best Sellers
- Shop All Compound
Our NEW and IMPROVED advanced compound binocular microscope with unique features at an affordable price.
LEARN MOREDarkfield Microscopes - view live samples, unstained specimens and lot more with our Darkfield Microscopes
SHOP NOW - Stereo Microscopes
- Shop By Brand
- AmScope
- Euromex
- Shop By Objective Type
- Fixed Power
- Zoom Power
- Single Lens
- Common Main Objective
- Shop By Stand Type
- Articulating Arms
- Boom Stands
- Gooseneck Stands
- Table Stands
- Other Stands
- Shop By Head Type
- Binocular
- Monocular
- Trinocular
- Simul-Focal
- Shop By Industry
- Industrial Inspection
- Microscope Heads
- Shop Stands
- Articulating Arm
- Boom Stands
- Table Stands
- Stereo With Digital Head
- Shop Best Sellers
- Shop All Stereo
The AmScope exclusive DM756 digital microscope is an All-in-One modular microscope with built-in camera and ring light
Don't Wait Shop Now >A highly-versatile 1080p/2MP digital microscope with a small footprint perfect for labs, workshops, schools, and more
SHOP NOWAmScope exclusive ALL-IN-ONE 3D DIGITAL INSPECTION MICROSCOPE. View different angles and perspectives of objects with ease.
EXPLORE - Specialized Microscopes
- Digital Microscopes
The AmScope exclusive DM756 digital microscope is an All-in-One modular microscope with built-in camera and ring light
SHOP NOW >Digital Integrated Microscopes - Fully integrated digital microscopes by OMAX are available now
SHOP TODAY! - Kids, Student Microscopes
Shop our Best Selling Premium Microscope All-In-One Bundles and get a QUALITY microscope and accessories.
SHOP PREMIUM BUNDLESNew and Innovative products to help your child continue learning while having fun at the same time.
KEEP THE FUN GOING
HISTORY OF THE MICROSCOPE
The Beginning
During that historic period known as the Renaissance, after the "dark" Middle Ages, there occurred the inventions of printing, gunpowder and the mariner's compass, followed by the discovery of America. Equally remarkable was the invention of the light microscope: an instrument that enables the human eye, by means of a lens or combinations of lenses, to observe enlarged images of tiny objects. It made visible the fascinating details of worlds within worlds.
Invention of Glass Lenses
Long before, in the hazy unrecorded past, someone picked up a piece of transparent crystal thicker in the middle than at the edges, looked through it, and discovered that it made things look larger. Someone also found that such a crystal would focus the sun's rays and set fire to a piece of parchment or cloth. Magnifiers and "burning glasses" or "magnifying glasses" are mentioned in the writings of Seneca and Pliny the Elder, Roman philosophers during the first century A. D., but apparently they were not used much until the invention of spectacles, toward the end of the 13th century. They were named lenses because they are shaped like the seeds of a lentil. The earliest simple microscope was merely a tube with a plate for the object at one end and, at the other, a lens which gave a magnification less than ten diameters -- ten times the actual size. These excited general wonder when used to view fleas or tiny creeping things and so were dubbed "flea glasses."
Birth of the Light Microscope
About 1590, two Dutch spectacle makers, Zaccharias Janssen and his son Hans, while experimenting with several lenses in a tube, discovered that nearby objects appeared greatly enlarged. That was the forerunner of the compound microscope and of the telescope. In 1609, Galileo, father of modern physics and astronomy, heard of these early experiments, worked out the principles of lenses, and made a much better instrument with a focusing device. The father of microscopy, Anton van Leeuwenhoek of Holland (1632-1723), started as an apprentice in a dry goods store where magnifying glasses were used to count the threads in cloth. He taught himself new methods for grinding and polishing tiny lenses of great curvature which gave magnifications up to 270 diameters, the finest known at that time. These led to the building of his microscopes and the biological discoveries for which he is famous. He was the first to see and describe bacteria, yeast plants, the teeming life in a drop of water, and the circulation of blood corpuscles in capillaries. During a long life he used his lenses to make pioneer studies on an extraordinary variety of things, both living and non living, and reported his findings in over a hundred letters to the Royal Society of England and the French Academy.
Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke, the English father of microscopy, re-confirmed Anton van Leeuwenhoek's discoveries of the existence of tiny living organisms in a drop of water. Hooke made a copy of Leeuwenhoek's light microscope and then improved upon his design.
Charles A. Spencer
Later, few major improvements were made until the middle of the 19th century. Then several European countries began to manufacture fine optical equipment but none finer than the marvelous instruments built by the American, Charles A. Spencer, and the industry he founded. Present day instruments, changed but little, give magnifications up to 1250 diameters with ordinary light and up to 5000 with blue light.
Beyond the Light Microscope
A light microscope, even one with perfect lenses and perfect illumination, simply cannot be used to distinguish objects that are smaller than half the wavelength of light. White light has an average wavelength of 0.55 micrometers, half of which is 0.275 micrometers. (One micrometer is a thousandth of a millimeter, and there are about 25,000 micrometers to an inch. Micrometers are also called microns.) Any two lines that are closer together than 0.275 micrometers will be seen as a single line, and any object with a diameter smaller than 0.275 micrometers will be invisible or, at best, show up as a blur. To see tiny particles under a microscope, scientists must bypass light altogether and use a different sort of "illumination," one with a shorter wavelength.
The introduction of the electron microscope in the 1930's filled the bill. Co-invented by Germans, Max Knott and Ernst Ruska in 1931, Ernst Ruska was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1986 for his invention (The other half of the Nobel Prize was divided between Heinrich Rohrer and Gerd Binnig for the STM). In this kind of microscope, electrons are speeded up in a vacuum until their wavelength is extremely short, only one hundred-thousandth that of white light. Beams of these fast-moving electrons are focused on a cell sample and are absorbed or scattered by the cell's parts so as to form an image on an electron-sensitive photographic plate.
Light Microscope | Electron Microscope |
---|---|
Free shipping on orders over $75
Fast and Same Day Shipping for orders
within the contiguous U.S
Easy 30 Day Returns
Purchase with confidence with our simple 30 day return policy
Quality Products
Enjoy high performance products
with a five year warranty on
AmScope Microscopes.
Do you have a question?
Our dedicated customer service team
is ready assist and find the products
you need.