Journal of Microscopy · 1981 · 80 citations · 1 references
Natural SciencesPhysicsHistologyOpticsVisual OpticsLens SystemsLight MicroscopyMicroscopic ExaminationLensesMagnificationMicroscope ImagingMicroscopic ImagingMicroscopyObjective Lenses
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the seventeenth‑century Dutch microscopist, pioneered prolonged microscopic study using transmitted light, producing over 500 simple microscopes of which only nine survive, and the precise nature of his lenses has long remained a puzzle. The surviving microscopes were examined in detail, and their optical characteristics were measured and tabulated. The lens with the highest magnification, 266×, is proposed to have been produced by a special blown‑bubble technique.
SUMMARY The seventeenth‐century Dutch microscopist, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, was the first man to make a protracted study of microscopical objects, and, unlike his contemporary Robert Hooke, he viewed by transmitted light. Leeuwenhoek made over 500 of his own, curious, simple microscopes, but now only nine are known to exist. The exact nature of the lenses Leeuwenhoek made, has for long been a puzzle. The existing microscopes have now been examined in detail, and their optical characteristics measured and tabulated. It is proposed that the lens of highest magnification, x 266, was made using a special blown bubble technique.
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