Find a card; Explore offers; Get Visa Checkout; Travel support; Lost or stolen card
It is believed that Zacharias Jansen's father, Hans, helped him build the first microscope in 1595. Zacharias wrote to a Dutch diplomat, William Boreel, about the invention. When the physician of the French king inquired about the invention in the 1650's, Boreel recounted the design of the microscope.
Historians credit the invention of the compound microscope to the Dutch spectacle maker, Zacharias Janssen, around the year 1590. The compound microscope uses lenses and light to enlarge the image and is also called an optical or light microscope (vs./ an electron microscope).