"Sander deWaal" wrote in message

"Schizoid Man" said:

The first electron microscopes appeared in the late 70s and early
80s that enabled us to see atoms for the first time.

Better make that the early '50s.

Wrong, late 30s.

http://inventors.about.com/library/i...microscope.htm

The introduction of the electron microscope in the 1930's filled the bill.
Co-invented by Germans, Max Knott and Ernst Ruska in 1931, Ernst Ruska was
awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1986 for his invention.


http://collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom...e4/258-261.htm

"While there is little doubt that a German physicist developed the basic
principles of the electron microscope, both Canada and the United States
claim to be first in making it practical. The evidence, however, clearly
favours Canada as two postgraduate students working in the Physics
Department of the University of Toronto with their physics professor,
between 1937 and 1939, developed the first ever transmission electron
microscope."


The theory behind electron scan microscopes was known since the '20s.

Agreed.

http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2000/IlyaSherman.shtml

"In 1926, Hans Busch discovered that magnetic fields could act as lenses by
causing electron beams to converge to a focus. A few years later, Max Knoll
and Ernst Ruska made the first modern prototype of an electron microscope."