Leeuwenhoek's microscope discoveries of the microscopic world

Name: Leeuwenhoek's microscope discoveries of the microscopic world
Start: 1674
End: 1676

Type Event Region Europe Time 1674–1676

Around 1674 Dutch Delft merchant Antonie van Leeuwenhoek used his own high-magnification single-lens microscope to first systematically observe and r…

Timeline

1674–1675Delft · NetherlandsLeeuwenhoek ground single-lens microscopes in his Delft workshop, observing rainwater, well water, and dental plaque samples, discovering vast numbers of tiny organisms previously unknown, and drawing records of his observations.
1676London · EnglandIn 1676 Leeuwenhoek wrote to the Royal Society reporting 'very little animals' found in a drop of water; after verification by the society it was published in the Philosophical Transactions, sparking wide European interest in the microscopic world.

Sources

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society — Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1676)
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek and his 'little animals' — Clifford Dobell (1932)