Science Fact Finder | General Science and Technology - Who Invented The Electron Microscope?

Who invented the electron microscope?

The electron microscope is a microscope that brings a stream of electrons, rather than visible light, into focus. The electron microscope is a significant improvement over the optical (light) microscope. The optical microscope is only able to focus in on objects that are at least the size of a wavelength of light. An electron microscope, in contrast, can magnify images thousands of times smaller than a wavelength of light.

In 1928, German engineers Ernst Ruska (1906-1988) and Max Knoll produced a crude electron microscope which magnified objects only to 17 times their actual size. The pair improved on their microscope so that by 1932 it had a magnification of 400 times.

Canadian-American physicist (a scientist specializing in the interaction between energy and matter) James Hillier (1915-) in 1937 came up with an advanced electron microscope with a magnification of...

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