The Dutchman Antony van Leeuwenhoek was born on Oktober the 24th in Delft (Holland, The Netherlands) He was a Dutch trader, land surveyor (geometrician), vintage rower, glass blower and microbiologist.
He is most famous for his microscope and his pioneerwork for the cell biology and the micro biology. In the year 1674 he made a lot of discoveries which were made famous by The Royal society in London.
He was the child of Philips Antonyszoon who was a hamper maker and Margaretha Bel bierbrouwers. After he finished his primary school in Warmond he moved to his uncle in Benthuizen. In the 1654 he moved back to Delft and continued his living there. On a very young age he was studying astronomics, mathematics, natural sciences and chemistry.
He got married to Barbara de Meij and started a shop to sell canvas, cotton and ties.Together they got 5 children. His wife passed away in a young age and Antony van Leeuwenhoek remarried Cornelia Swalmius. In the year 1694 his wife Cornelia Swalmius passed away. He was left over with his only daughter Maria. The other children already passed away.
Everything that Antony van Leeuwenhoek reached and invented was all done by himself. Because of his curiosity he kept going with investigations and discovered a lot. From every discovery he did, he was keeping written letters. He was noting exactly what he was doing. Antony van Leeuwenhoek got famous because of his inventions. With his inventions he went to the Royal Society in London (England).
The first microscope was not invented by Antony van Leeuwenhoek himself but it was done by Robert Hooke and Jan Swammerdam. This was invented 40 years before he got born, but Antony van Leeuwenhoek invented something what earlier people were not able to do. He was able to make microscopes that could enlarge with the amount of 200. Robert Hooke and Jan Swammerdam were able to enlarge with a number of 20 to 30.
Antony van Leeuwenhoek also discovered bacteria. This was in the year 1683.
He did this with the use of human dental plaque. He was investigating the dental plaque of different people and this way he saw a couple of bacteria which were moving fastly and little ones that were circulating.
Antony van Leeuwenhoek made a lot of discoveries in his life. He was the first one who was able to see spermcells. Antony van Leeuwenhoek also discovered that sickness was caused because of micro-organisms.
Because of Antony van Leeuwenhoek we know how hit gets into bloodcells and how it is going to look like.
With his microscope Antony van Leeuwenhoek discovered the following things:
Small animals in still water.
– Spermcells
– The anatomy of fleas.
– The anatomy of vegetation
– Red bloodcells
– The embryo-fase of different kinds of animals.
The discoveries made by Antony van Leeuwenhoek might be the biggest of the 17th century. He died on Oktober the 26th in the year 1723.
