Final answer:
The development of the microscope from 1590 to 1950 involved key milestones, including the discovery of magnification by Janssen, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's development of a lens for viewing microbes, and the invention of modern light microscopes by Joseph Jackson Lister.
Step-by-step explanation:
The development of the microscope from 1590 to 1950 can be traced through several key milestones. In the early 1600s, Dutch spectacle makers Zacharias Janssen and his son Hans discovered that nearby objects appeared magnified when viewed through a tube with multiple lenses.
This discovery laid the foundation for the compound microscope. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, a Dutch shopkeeper and lens maker, was the first to develop a lens powerful enough to view microbes in the 1600s. In the 1800s, Joseph Jackson Lister created a modern light microscope.
The 20th century brought advancements in microscopes that used nonvisible light, such as fluorescence and electron microscopy, leading to major improvements in magnification, resolution, and contrast.