Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.15725

    Section of an oak tree and its year rings

    Date
    12 January 1680
    Creator
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Manuscript page number
    p13
    Material
    Dimensions
    height (page): 392mm
    width (page): 255mm
    Subject
    Description
    From Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to Robert Hooke, drawn by Leeuwenhoek himself.

    'The circumference of an imaginary oak, alder etc, which has 18 rings and consequently is 18 years old'.
    Object history
    Printed as Fig. 1 in Antoni Leeuwenhoek, ‘Several woods and their vessels’, Phil. Trans. vol. 13, no. 148 (June 1683), pp. 197-208.

    At the meeting of the Royal Society on 15 January 1680, 'Mr. Hooke produced the translation of a long letter, which he had received from Mr. Leewenhoeck, written in Low Dutch; together with several curious draughts of small pieces of wood observed in the microscope; as also the letter itself. A part of this translation was read, and the delineations examined, wherein were explained the several vessels and curious contexture of the parts of wood. The remaining part was referred to the next meeting' (Birch 4:3).

    The entire letter with all the images was also printed in Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Ontledingen en Ontdekkingen, van het Eyken, Olm, Boeken, Willegen, Elsen, Mauritius-Ebben, Palmen-hout, ende stroo. Van de Dierkens in de Hommen van Baars, Braassem, Voorn ende Zeelt (Leiden: Cornelis Boutesteyn, 1686), pp. 17-32.
    Related fellows
    Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
    Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
    Associated place
    <The World>
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          > Netherlands
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