Zacharias & Francis Janssen 1590

In 1590, Zacharias and Francis Janssen, Dutch brothers who specialized in the making of eye-glasses, discovered how to combine two convex lenses in a tube which could be used to magnify minute objects. This is believed to be the invention of the compound light microscope.

One illustration depicts Zacharias Janssen as he was believed to appear in the late 16^th century, and the other illustration depicts the type of early compound light microscope developed by the Janssen brothers.