overall: 1 in x 2 1/8 in x 2 5/8 in; 2.54 cm x 5.3975 cm x 6.6675 cm
Object Name:
microscope replica
Place made:
United States: New York, Rochester
Date made:
1957
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 <i>Micrographia</i>, 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,” <i>Journal of the Royal Microscopical Society</i> 6 (1886): 1047-1049.
J. van Zuylen, “The Microscopes of Antoni van Leeuwenhoek,” <i>Journal of Microscopy</i> 121 (1981): 309-328.
