Three figures of cross sections of oak wood
Date
12 January 1680
Creator
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723, Dutch) , Naturalist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
p15
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 390mm
width (page): 240mm
width (page): 240mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek to Robert Hooke. From his letter Van Leewenhoek seems to assume that he has drawn the figures in red chalk himself.
Fig. 1: Van Leeuwenhoek explains how he has taken a piece of oak wood and observed it through one of his microscopes, in which the brown lines show the growth per year. The drawing next to Letter H shows the real size. Letters E show vertical vessels, which are filled with 'little bladders', as depicted in Fig. 2.
Fig. 3: a second sort of vertical vessels, which are smaller and consist of very thins films, which look like globules through a microscope.
Figures copied at EL/L1/49/017 and EL/L1/49/019.
Fig. 1: Van Leeuwenhoek explains how he has taken a piece of oak wood and observed it through one of his microscopes, in which the brown lines show the growth per year. The drawing next to Letter H shows the real size. Letters E show vertical vessels, which are filled with 'little bladders', as depicted in Fig. 2.
Fig. 3: a second sort of vertical vessels, which are smaller and consist of very thins films, which look like globules through a microscope.
Figures copied at EL/L1/49/017 and EL/L1/49/019.
Object history
'Though not at all a great draughtsman, I have put the aspect of the wood to paper in red chalk to the best of my ability. I had a copy made in black chalk by another man, but when I tried to print it, I made the paper a little too wet and thus mostly spoiled it. Though the copy was very accurate, I yet send you enclosed my red-chalk drawing, because the little vessels figured' (Alle de brieven van Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, ed. by a committee of Dutch scientists, 17 vols [ongoing] (Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger, 1939- ), III (1948), 144-87 (letter 54) (p. 165)).
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 31 October 1683, ‘[Dr. Grew] confirmed the truth of Mr. Leewenhoeck’s observations in his schemes of several sorts of wood, which he had observed with a gloss of his own, though Dr. Grew differed from him sometimes in his deductions or the philosophical part’ (Birch 4:221).
Microscopic observation of several wood barks, in Antoni Leeuwenhoek, ‘Several woods and their vessels’, Phil. Trans. vol. 13, no. 148 (June 1683), pp. 197-208, refs to figures throughout.
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.
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 31 October 1683, ‘[Dr. Grew] confirmed the truth of Mr. Leewenhoeck’s observations in his schemes of several sorts of wood, which he had observed with a gloss of his own, though Dr. Grew differed from him sometimes in his deductions or the philosophical part’ (Birch 4:221).
Microscopic observation of several wood barks, in Antoni Leeuwenhoek, ‘Several woods and their vessels’, Phil. Trans. vol. 13, no. 148 (June 1683), pp. 197-208, refs to figures throughout.
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
Martin Lister (1639 - 1712, British) , Physician
Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural Philosopher
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
Martin Lister (1639 - 1712, British) , Physician
Henry Oldenburg (1612 - 1677, German) , Scientific correspondent
Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural Philosopher
Associated place