Editing Optical microscope (section)

===Popularization===
[[File:Stelluti bees1630.jpg|thumb|right|The oldest published image known to have been made with a microscope: bees by [[Francesco Stelluti]], 1630<ref>Gould, Stephen Jay (2000) ''[[The Lying Stones of Marrakech]]''. Harmony Books. {{ISBN|0-609-60142-3}}.</ref>]]
[[Antonie van Leeuwenhoek]] (1632–1724) is credited with bringing the microscope to the attention of biologists, even though simple magnifying lenses were already being produced in the 16th century. Van Leeuwenhoek's home-made microscopes were simple microscopes, with a single very small, yet strong lens. They were awkward in use, but enabled van Leeuwenhoek to see detailed images. It took about 150 years of optical development before the compound microscope was able to provide the same quality image as van Leeuwenhoek's simple microscopes, due to difficulties in configuring multiple lenses. In the 1850s, [[John Leonard Riddell]], Professor of Chemistry at [[Tulane University]], invented the first practical binocular microscope while carrying out one of the earliest and most extensive American microscopic investigations of [[cholera]].<ref name="Riddell">{{cite journal | author = Riddell JL | title = On the binocular microscope | journal = Q J Microsc Sci | volume = 2 | pages = 18–24 | year = 1854}}</ref><ref name="Cassedy">{{cite journal | author = Cassedy JH | title = John L. Riddell's Vibrio biceps: Two documents on American microscopy and cholera etiology 1849–59 | journal = J Hist Med | volume = 28 | pages = 101–108 | year = 1973 | issue=2| doi = 10.1093/jhmas/xxviii.2.101 | pmid = 4572620 }}</ref>