IN THIS CHAPTER
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, the first
microscopist
Robert Hooke and his book Micrographia
Chester Moor Hall invents the achromat
lens system
The triumvirate of Carl Zeiss, Ernst Abbe and
Otto Schott
Chapter 13
A Brief Look Back
Visualizing Bacteria With Up to 270×
Magnification
The history of early microscopes already dates back to the 13th century. Single-lens
magnifying glasses were used to enlarge objects visibly. While working in a store
using such magnifying glasses to count the number of threads in cloth, Antonie
van Leeuwenhoek taught himself methods for grinding and polishing small, curved
lenses and therefore became the »father« of microscopy. He reached magnifications
up to 270×. In the 1670s, he started to explore microbial life with this
microscope. He was the first to observe and describe bacteria after viewing the
very little living animalcules in the mouth of an old man who had never cleaned
his teeth, the circulation of blood corpuscles in capillaries, and living sperm cells,
among a host of other unique (at the time) specimens.
The Leeuwenhoek Microscope
Leeuwenhoek designed and built several hundred small microscopes. The main
body of these microscopes consisted of two flat and thin metal (usually brass)
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