MicroscopyPioneers
Pioneers in Optics: Joseph Jackson Lister and Maksymilian Pluta
Michael W. Davidson National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306
davidson@magnet.fsu.edu
Joseph Jackson Lister (1786–1869)
Tough microscopes and telescopes had been invented
in the late sixteenth century, various optical difficulties meant that the devices were more commonly con- sidered novelties than useful scientific instru- ments
for many years.
Chief among these prob- lems were aberrations in the images caused by optical errors from the lenses. Many scientists had attempted to rectify such difficulties, but the nineteenth-century amateur microscopist Joseph Jackson Lister is credited with making some of the most impor- tant advances toward correcting image aberrations and establishing the microscope as
a powerful means of carrying out serious scientific
investigations. Born in London, England on January 11, 1786, Lister was
a Quaker whose interest in optics was sparked in his youth. He was reportedly a giſted student, but his formal education came to an end when he was only fourteen, at which time he began working with his father, a wine merchant. In 1804, he was granted a partnership in his father’s business, which he would maintain throughout his life. He was also, however, engaged in other business ventures, such as acting as an investor in a ship that his brother-in-law would command. Furthermore, as a very influential Quaker, Lister was significantly occupied by religious activities as well as his scientific investigations. He met his wife, Elizabeth, who taught reading and writing, through his ongoing involvement with various schools. Together the couple had seven children, one of which, Joseph Lister, became a famous surgeon who was the first to develop antiseptic practices. Joseph Jackson Lister began studying lenses in the
mid-1820s, but his landmark paper, which explained how lenses could be combined in a compound microscope in such a way that chromatic aberration was greatly reduced, was not submitted to the Royal Society until 1830. Aided by the
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renowned optician William Tulley, Lister had found that by combining lenses of flint glass with those of crown glass and spacing them at specific distances from one another, the refractive problems of one were amended by the other, enabling clearer microscopic observations than ever before. Tis information as well as the depiction of numerous experiments carried out by Lister impressed the Royal Society to such a great extent that they appointed him a fellow of the scientific academy. Also, soon aſter the revelation of Lister’s discovery, his system was adopted widely by microscope makers, becoming an industry standard. Lister himself oſten advised London instrument makers and even began grinding his own lenses. A notable consequence of the microscope improvements
suggested by Lister was the elevation of histology into an independent science. Now that they were no longer plagued by optical error, microscopes revealed previously unseen details in tissues of all types, greatly advancing the medical knowledge base. In fact, Lister was the first to accurately observe and report the true appearance of red corpuscles present in mammalian blood. Other investigations carried out by the microscopist before his death on October 24, 1869, included those focusing on zoophytes and the limits of the human vision system.
Maksymilian Pluta (1929–2002)
Maksymilian Pluta was a renowned professor and optics
pioneer who authored one of the definitive twentieth-century texts on light microscopy. Tough he rose to great heights in the fields of optics and microscopy, he began his life under humble circumstances. Pluta was born on February 28, 1929, in Karwin, Poland, to a large peasant family and completed his earliest education in difficult conditions during World War II. Aſter the war had ended, financial hard- ship made it necessary for Pluta to move to Chorzów, where he lived with relatives.
doi:10.1017/S1551929511000277
www.microscopy-today.com • 2011 May
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