Antonie van leeuwenhoek microscope

Antonie van leeuwenhoek contribution to cell theory
Antonie van leeuwenhoek invention
Antonie van leeuwenhoek contribution to microbiology

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Antoni van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, the Netherlands, on 24 October 1632 to Margriet Jacobsdochter van den Berch and Philips Thooniszoon, both of whom were middle-class artisans. He attended grammar school in Warmond, and then temporarily moved to Benthuizen to live with relatives. Eventually Leeuwenhoek left for Amsterdam to work as a cloth merchant’s apprentice. Returning to Delft, he married Barbara de Mey on 29 July 1654, and worked as a shopkeeper. The marriage resulted in five children, only one of whom, Maria, outlived Leeuwenhoek.

In 1660 Leeuwenhoek left shopkeeping and became a civil servant as usher to the aldermen in Delft. That position led him to other civil occupations that resulted in greater financial reward, such as Chief Warden of the city and Wine-gauger. Meanwhile, Leeuwenhoek’s wife died in 1666 and in 1671 he married Cornelia Swalmius, the daughter of a Calvinist minister. Swalmius died in 1694 and their one child died in infancy.

In 1671 Leeuwenhoek also began his scientific career by assembling simple microscopes and magnifying glasses

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The Dutch scientist and entrepreneur Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) was the first to discover and describe microorganisms (protists, bacteria), living beings he characterized as “animalcules” (little animals). Using single-lensed microscopes created for his own, private research, he was able to see and draw microbes for the first time in the history of biomedical sciences. As a result, he became later known as the “father of microbiology”.

In this Editorial, I want to commemorate the 300th anniversary of van Leewenhoek’s death at the age of 90 years by briefly analyzing and summarizing his scientific legacy in different branches of microbiology, from medical aspects (pathogenic microbes in all kinds of organisms) to symbiotic relationships. In addition, van Leeuwenhoek’s neglected agenda of “public understanding of microscopic biology” is outlined, with reference to his status as a key figure in one of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s famous romantic fairy tales of 1822, Master Flea (Figure 1).

Figure 1.

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On 20 April 2011, the Netherlands Society of Microbiology

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Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723)

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft on 24 October 1632. In 1648, van Leeuwenhoek was apprenticed to a textile merchant, which is where he probably first encountered magnifying glasses, which were used in the textile trade to count thread densities for quality control purposes. Aged 20, he returned to Delft and set himself up as a linen-draper. He prospered and was appointed chamberlain to the sheriffs of Delft in 1660, and becoming a surveyor nine years later.

In 1668, van Leeuwenhoek paid his first and only visit to London, where he probably saw a copy of Robert Hooke's 'Micrographia' (1665) which included pictures of textiles that would have been of interest to him. In 1673, he reported his first observations - bee mouthparts and stings, a human louse and a fungus - to the Royal Society. He was elected a member of the society in 1680 and continued his association for the rest of his life by correspondence.

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