Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723) was a Dutch tradesman and scientist, best known for his

work on the development and improvement of the microscope and also for his subsequent
contribution towards the study of microbiology.

Using handcrafted microscopes, Anton van Leeuwenhoek was the first person to observe and
describe single celled organisms, which he originally referred to as animalcules (which we now
refer to as microorganisms). He was also the first to record and observe muscle fibres, bacteria,
spermatozoa and blood flow in capillaries (small blood vessels).

Born in Delft, the Netherlands, on October 24, 1632, Anton van Leeuwenhoek (in Dutch Antonie
van Leeuwenhoek) was the son of a basket maker. At the age of 16, van Leeuwenhoek secured an
apprenticeship with a cloth merchant in Amsterdam as a bookkeeper and casher. There he saw his
first simple microscope, a simple magnifying glass mounted on a small stand, as used by cloth
merchants of the time. After a short period, had acquired one for his own use.

In 1654, van Leeuwenhoek returned to Delft where he started a own successful drapery business,
though it was to be his interest in microscopes and a familiarity with glass processing that would
lead to the significant discoveries he would later make.

The Father of Microbiology

Anton van Leeuwenhoek was an unlikely scientist, since he came from a family of tradesmen, had
no fortune and received no higher education or university degrees. This would have been enough
to exclude him from the scientific community completely, yet with skill and diligence, van
Leeuwenhoek succeeded in making some of the most important discoveries in the history of
biology, considered as "the Father of Microbiology".

And at some time before 1668, Anton van Leeuwenhoek had learned to grind lenses, making
simple microscopes, which he used to make simple observations. Seemingly inspired to into more
serious research after seeing a copy of Robert Hooke's illustrated book Micrographia, which
depicted Hooke's own observations with the microscope and was very popular, van Leeuwenhoek
started developing his own microscopes.

Van Leeuwenhoek's microscope

By placing the middle of a small rod of soda lime glass in a hot flame, van Leeuwenhoek could pull
the hot section apart like taffy to create two long whiskers of glass. By then reinserting the end of
one whisker into the flame, he could create a very small, high-quality glass sphere. These glass
spheres then became the lenses of his microscopes, with the smallest spheres providing the
highest magnifications.

Basic in design, van Leeuwenhoek's instruments consisted of simple powerful magnifying glasses,
rather than the compound microscopes (microscopes using more than one lens) of the type used
today or in Zacharias Jansen's original microscope design. Compared to a modern microscope,
van Leeuwenhoek's design is extremely simple, using a single lens mounted in a tiny hole in a
brass plate that makes up the body of the instrument. The specimen was then mounted on a sharp
point that sticks up in front of the lens. Its position and focus could be adjusted by turning the two
screws. The entire instrument was only 3-4 inches long, and had to be held up close to the eye,
requiring good lighting and great patience to use.

Compound microscopes had been invented in the 1590s, nearly forty years before Leeuwenhoek
was born, however there were technical difficulties in building them, meaning that early compound
microscopes had a magnification of 20x or 30x. Yet although these early microscopes were much
more similar in design to the modern microscopes of today, van Leeuwenhoek's simple magnifiers
were able to achieve magnification of over 200x with to his skill in lens grinding, together with his
naturally acute eyesight and great care in adjusting the lighting where he worked.
What further distinguished him was his curiosity to observe almost anything that could be placed
under his lenses, and his care in describing what he saw. Although he himself could not draw well,
he hired an illustrator to prepare drawings of the things he saw, to accompany his written
descriptions.

Discovery of single-celled organisms

After developing his method for creating powerful lenses and applying them to a thorough study of
the microscopic world, van Leeuwenhoek was introduced via correspondence to the Royal Society
of London and soon began to send copies of his recorded microscopic observations. In 1673 his
earliest observations of bee mouthparts and stings were published by the Royal Society. Despite
this initial success, the Royal Society questioned van Leeuwenhoek's credibility when he sent the
Royal Society a copy of his first observations of microscopic single-celled organisms. Previously,
the existence of a single-celled organism was entirely unknown and initially were met with
skepticism. Eventually, in the face of Van Leeuwenhoek's insistence, the Royal Society sent a team
of respected observers to confirm van Leeuwenhoek's observations.

Van Leeuwenhoek's vindication resulted in his appointment as a Fellow of the Royal Society in that
year. After his appointment to the Society, he wrote approximately 560 letters to the Society and
other scientific institutions over a period of 50 years, detailing the subjects he had investigated.