Anthony van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)

Thonius Philips van Leeuwenhoek was born in 1632 in Delft, as a son of a basket-maker. He was educated for the linen-trade and he owned a linen-draper’s shop for a short time.

In 1669 he passed the exam surveying, and in 1679 he was appointed as inspector of weights and measures.

After the discovery of his microscope, he was introduced to the Royal Society, in 1680 he passes as member. Since his discovery, he wrote in about 50 years over 560 letters to the Royal Society and other institutions. His letters deal over all kinds of discoveries.

His microscopes existed of a pair copper or silver plates with a hand-cut lens. Of the microscopes that are still left, the best has a magnitude of 270x, presumably Van Leeuwenhoek owned microscopes whit a magnitude up to 500 times.

In 1674 he discovered the infusories, in 1676 the bacteria, the spermatozoids in 1677, the cross-lines on the muscle-fibres (1682) and many historical and biological novelties in the plant- and animal kingdoms. He can be seen as the founding father of microbiology.