Dr. Rife has been referred to by those who personally knew and worked with him as a genius. A scientist and inventor, starting in the 1920s, Rife began building a large and complex microscope capable of magnifying objects 31,000 times (compared with maybe 1700 times available on standard microscopes in the 1930s and 40s). By 1940 Rife had a two-foot high device weighing in at 200 pounds which included some 5,682 parts that enabled Rife to see viruses and bacteria in a way no other scientists had.