V.K. Zworykin, Associate Director of the RCA laboratories, and James Hillier, a pioneer of electron microscopy in Canada, in front of an early electron microscope, which incorporates a diffraction camera used to study the molecular structure of specimens. The RCA EMU-2B established Canadian expertise in electron optics around the world. (Getty Image, Collection Bettman: U994083 INP. 1944)
Read the history of McGill's Facility for Electron Microscopy Research (FEMR)
See the 1988 commemorative Canadian stamp
Transmission Electron Microscopy
Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a technique in which a beam of electrons is passed through a specimen, usually less than 100 nm thick, to form an image. This is magnified and focused onto an imaging device such as a fluorescent screen or on photographic film. The technique results in images of much higher resolution than can be acquired by light microscopy, allowing visualization of minute details of cell and material structure. The first TEM was developed by Max Knoll and Ernst Ruska in 1931, for which Ruska was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986.
Accelerating electrons, and focusing them through aligned electromagnetic lenses as they passed through a very thin specimen, allowed the nano-world to be discovered and imaged by electron microscopy. This breakthrough method first developed in the 1930s at various places around the world (including Canada) propelled scientists to explore the previously hidden molecular and atomic world of biology and materials. This exhibit displays information about the early days of the development and commercial production of the first electron microscope produced in the Americas, from its fundamental planning in Toronto to its mass production in the USA.
History of Electron Microscopy in the McGill Department of Anatomy & Cell Biology
Electron microscopy began at McGill in the late 1940s with the purchase of the transmission electron microscope (TEM), on display in the basement alcove of the Strathcona Anatomy & Dentistry Building. Initially located in the Department of Physics in the Eaton Electronics Building (now the Rutherford Physics Building), the microscope was moved to the Strathcona Anatomy & Dentistry Building around 1959 and was used by Anatomy Department staff until 1967. Another TEM—a Siemens Elmiscope 1—had been installed in the Strathcona Medical Building one year earlier in 1958. It was used until 1972, when it was sold to the Montreal General Hospital.
In the mid-1960s, the Department obtained two Hitachi HS-7S TEMs. These were used for almost 15 years, when one was sold to the Royal Victoria Hospital and the second to an art restorer. In 1972, the Department purchased a demonstrator model of the Elmiskop 101 from the Siemens Company.
In the late 1970s, a new generation of instruments was developed in which moving parts were replaced with integrated circuits. The Department acquired two of these, Philips models EM400 and EM400T. The latter had a double condenser aperture system for high-resolution materials research. However, it did not provide sufficient contrast for imaging biological samples, and another microscope—the Philips EM301—was acquired for such use. All these instruments were decommissioned in the early 2000s.
In 2026, the electron microscope EM-1 is displayed in the basement alcove of the Strathcona Anatomy & Dentistry Building at 3640 University Street, Montreal, Quebec.
