Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10393
Looking for a special gift? Buy a print of this image.
Leeuwenhoek microscope
Date
1741
Creator
Henry Baker (1698 - 1774, British) , Natural philosopher
After
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Microscopist
Object type
Archive reference number
Material
Dimensions
height (drawing): 54mm
width (painting): 118mm
width (painting): 118mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Microscope designed by Antoni van Leeuwenhoek incorporating a concave metal speculum or brass dish to assist in light gathering, with the magnifying lens at its centre. Front and rear views of the instrument.
Baker argues that this microscope design is similar in style to one within a set presented to the Royal Society: “This microscope, with its dish (which I give an exact Copy of from the Picture in his Works) seems so like our opake Microscope with its Silver Speculum...”
Figures from the paper “An account of Mr. Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes”, by Henry Baker, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 41 1739-1741, pp.503-519. Not signed.
Anthoni van Leeuwenhoek was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1680.
Henry Baker was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1741.
Baker argues that this microscope design is similar in style to one within a set presented to the Royal Society: “This microscope, with its dish (which I give an exact Copy of from the Picture in his Works) seems so like our opake Microscope with its Silver Speculum...”
Figures from the paper “An account of Mr. Leeuwenhoek’s microscopes”, by Henry Baker, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 41 1739-1741, pp.503-519. Not signed.
Anthoni van Leeuwenhoek was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1680.
Henry Baker was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1741.
Associated place