About cinnabar and gunpowder
Date
22 January 1686
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p17a
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 45mm
width (page): 59mm
width (page): 59mm
Subject
Description
Six figures of an original drawing belonging to the letter now in EL/L1/79 from Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to the Royal Society. This is the English copy in the Letter Book of the original Dutch letter.
Fig. A: small particles of cinnabar after being put in fire, observed with a microscope.
Fig. B: more or less the size of a grain of sand, but in this case they have the shape of a triangle with the corners taken off.
Fig. CD: Cinnabar that had been next to the fire.
Figs E and F: six-sided particles which consisted of several parts themselves.
Fig. GH: also like in this figure, with a triangle on another figure.
The figures are copied in LBC/11i/019.
Fig. A: small particles of cinnabar after being put in fire, observed with a microscope.
Fig. B: more or less the size of a grain of sand, but in this case they have the shape of a triangle with the corners taken off.
Fig. CD: Cinnabar that had been next to the fire.
Figs E and F: six-sided particles which consisted of several parts themselves.
Fig. GH: also like in this figure, with a triangle on another figure.
The figures are copied in LBC/11i/019.
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 31 March 1686, ‘Part of a letter of Mr. Leewenhoeck was read, containing several curious observations on cinnabar and gunpowder’ (Birch 4:470).
Printed in:
A. Leeuwenhoek, ‘Several observations on cinnabar and gunpowder’, Phil. Trans. vol. 17, no. 200 (May 1693), pp. 754-60.
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Ontledingen en ontdekkingen. Van de cinnaber naturalis, en bus-poeder; van het maaksel van been en huyd; van de galnoot, kastanie en okkernoot; van de voortteelinge van eenige zaden, vergeleken by de Voortteelinge van Garnaad, krabbe, en kreeft; waar in de deugdsaamheid van het eyken-hout bestaat, en hoe het te kennen is (Leiden: Cornelis Boutesteyn, 1686), pp. 3-24.
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Anatomia Seu interiora Rerum, Cum Animatarum tum Inanimatarum, Ope & beneficio [sic] exquisitissimorum Microscopiorum Detecta, variisque experimentis demonstrata [etc.] (Leiden: C. Boutesteyn, 1687), pp. 178-94.
Printed in:
A. Leeuwenhoek, ‘Several observations on cinnabar and gunpowder’, Phil. Trans. vol. 17, no. 200 (May 1693), pp. 754-60.
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Ontledingen en ontdekkingen. Van de cinnaber naturalis, en bus-poeder; van het maaksel van been en huyd; van de galnoot, kastanie en okkernoot; van de voortteelinge van eenige zaden, vergeleken by de Voortteelinge van Garnaad, krabbe, en kreeft; waar in de deugdsaamheid van het eyken-hout bestaat, en hoe het te kennen is (Leiden: Cornelis Boutesteyn, 1686), pp. 3-24.
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Anatomia Seu interiora Rerum, Cum Animatarum tum Inanimatarum, Ope & beneficio [sic] exquisitissimorum Microscopiorum Detecta, variisque experimentis demonstrata [etc.] (Leiden: C. Boutesteyn, 1687), pp. 178-94.
Related fellows
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
Associated place