Microscopy

The museum has a large collection of microscopes and related items such as slides and microtomes, which display the developments in the field of microscopy since the 17th century. The oldest model is a Culpepper microscope, ca. 1735, made of copper and leather. There are also plenty of 19^th and 20^th century models from the company Zeiss and Leitz. The newest object is a - non-operational – electron microscope.

Particularly outstanding is the collection of physicist and Nobel Prize winner Frits Zernike (1888-1966). He received the Nobel Prize for inventing the Phase Contrast Microscope. The instruments he used to make the phase contrast rings for the microscope have been kept, along with drawings, photos and other documents.