Microscope
Microscope
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- Description
- Antoni Van Leeuwenhoek (1635-1723) was a Dutch tradesman who became interested in microscopy while on a visit to London in 1666. Returning home, he began making simple microscopes of the sort that Robert Hooke had described in his Micrographia, and using them to discover objects invisible to the naked eye.
- In 1886, John Mayall, a prominent English microscopist, made drawings of an original Leeuwenhoek microscope that belonged to the Zoological Laboratories at the University of Utrecht, and that a Dutch professor had brought to London. Replicas followed soon thereafter.The inscription on this example reads “REPLICA OF MICROSCOPE / BY ANTONY VAN LEEUWENHOEK / ABOUT A.D. 1665 / MADE IN 1957 BY / BAUSCH & LOMB CO. / ROCHESTER, N.Y.”
- Ref: J. Mayall, “Leeuwenhoek’s Microscopes,” Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society 6 (1886): 1047-1049.
- J. van Zuylen, “The Microscopes of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek,” Journal of Microscopy 121 (1981): 309-328.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- microscope replica
- date made
- 1957
- maker
- Bausch and Lomb Optical Company
- place made
- United States: New York, Rochester
- Physical Description
- metal (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 1 in x 2 1/8 in x 2 5/8 in; 2.54 cm x 5.3975 cm x 6.6675 cm
- ID Number
- MG.M-12187
- accession number
- 272522
- catalog number
- M-12187
- 272522.02
- Credit Line
- Gift of Bausch & Lomb
- subject
- Science & Scientific Instruments
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Medicine
- Microscopes
- Science & Mathematics
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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