The microscope was one of the most significant inventions of the Scientific Revolution, opening up completely new and miniaturised worlds. The first microscopes were invented in the first quarter of... It is not definitively known who invented the microscope. However, the earliest microscopes seem to have been made by Dutch opticians Hans Janssen and his son Zacharias Janssen and by Dutch instrument maker Hans Lippershey (who also invented the telescope) about 1590. He used his microscopes to describe bacteria harvested from tooth scrapings, and to study protozoans found in pond water. By the dawn of the 18th century, British instrument designers had introduced improved versions of the tripod microscope invented by Edmund Culpeper. Attributed to the invention of the microscope are two Dutch spectacle craftsmen, Zacharias Jansen and his father Hans. In the waning years of the 16th century, their hands gave shape to the prototype of a device that has now become a cornerstone tool within various scientific domains.
