Today in Technology History
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by e-mail, click here. To read past issues click here.)March 11
The scanning electron microscope has allowed scientists to study microscopic objects with incredible clarity. The individual chiefly responsible for the success of this valuable scientific instrument died exactly six years ago.
Charles William Oatley was born in Frome, England on Valentine's Day in 1904. His father's keen amateur interest in science and microscopes rubbed off on young Charles, who eventually studied science at Cambridge.
After a stint at a company that manufactured radio valves, he returned to academic life and spent over a decade researching the physics of radio. That work earned him an invitation to join the team of scientists secretly
developing radar; by the end of World War II, Oatley was in charge of the radar project.
He then took a position at Cambridge, teaching electrical engineering. At the time, "transmission electron microscopes" were coming into wide use. In these early electron microscopes, a focused beam of electrons -- tiny subatomic particles --
was fired through a specimen, creating a projected image.
Oatley proved that picture quality could be vastly improved if the electrons were bounced off the specimen instead of shot through it. The "scanning electron microscope," which Oatley perfected, would "scan" the surface of the specimen with row after row of electrons -- similar to the technology that creates a television picture.
The resulting images were startlingly three-dimensional. Despite initial reticence, the scientific community began to accept the scanning electron microscope in the 1960s. It is now a standard tool in major research labs.
Oatley received ample honors for his life's work, including a knighthood. Sir Charles died on March 11, 1996, at the age of 92.
[Sir Charles Oatley is pictured at the top of this page. The other pictures show images from scanning electron microscopes. From top to bottom: filaments of bacteria growing from a bit of wheat root; the head of a flea; the leg of an ant; a "straw itch mite" on the back of a caterpillar.]
Related links:
Click here for a "tour" that will show you how a scanning electron microscope works.
Click here to learn more about Sir Charles and the scanning electron microscope.
Click here to learn about the workings of the transmission electron microscope, which preceded the scanning electron microscope.
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