Artefact No.: 2010.0153
Made by: James Hillier and Albert Prebus, Department of Physics, University of Toronto
Date: 1938
Source: Department of Physics, University of Toronto

A Student Project

This electron microscope was the first in North America. It was built in 1938 by two Canadians, Albert Prebus and James Hillier, when they were graduate students in the Physics Department, University of Toronto.

Only a decade earlier, "electron optics" had been a theory in Germany; using local resources during the Great Depression, Prebus and Hillier were able to produce this elegant, homemade instrument – one of the most powerful microscopes in the world at the time.

How it Works

The electron gun (top) sends a beam of electrons through a series of magnetic lenses and then through the specimen. A magnetic projector lens focuses the beam onto a photographic plate.