In 1948 JEOL produced its first trial electron microscope, and in 1950 JEOL made available its first commercial electron microscope the JEM. In 1956 JEOL shipped a JEM Electron Microscope to the Atomic Energy Commision of France, ushering in the beginning of JEOL into the world market.

The DA-1, shown above, was JEOL's first commercial transmission electron microscope. Produced as a prototype prior to the founding of JEOL, it was completed and shipped to Mitsubishi Chemical Industry late in 1947.

The first production model, the JEM-1, was completed in 1949. It had an inverted column and used high frequency to generate accelerating voltage (HT).

The JSM (now known as the JSM-1) was JEOL's first commercially produced Scanning Electron Microscope. The JSM -1 was made commercially available in 1966. Among its advanced features was a Eucentric Stage.

Resolution: 250Å (at 25kV)
Magnification: 100 - 30,000
Scan area: 1x1 mm (at 25kV)

By eliminating the cumbersome alignment of the image forming system, the JEM-T7, (1968) offered ease of operation along with high performance. Among its advanced features were a multipurpose specimen chamber and an electromagnetic stigmator.

Resolution: 7Å guaranteed
Magnification: 300 x 100,000
Accelerating voltage: 60kV

The SuperScope (JEM-50) was, "Our everyday electron microscope at an everyday price". It was as easy to use as an optical microscope and could be run off ordinary 110 volt house current. The SuperScope could magnify images up to 4,000x and enhance images up to 30,000x..

JEOL's first mass spectrometer, the JMS-01, was introduced in March, 1963. It had a resolving power of 50,000 by using a photoplate detector and a mass accuracy of 5 ppm by using a peak matcher.

The JMS-06 was an early GC/MS system. It was the first JEOL mass spectrometer to use virtual image ion optics, a concept developed by Prof. Matsuda of Osaka University and still used in the JMS-600 mass spectrometer.