The invention:
A microscope characterized by high-intensity illumination
for the study of exceptionally small objects, such as colloidal
substances.
The people behind the invention:
Richard Zsigmondy (1865-1929), an Austrian-born German
organic chemist who won the 1925 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
H. F. W. Siedentopf (1872-1940), a German physicist-optician
Max von Smouluchowski (1879-1961), a German organic
chemist.