Anton van leeuwenhoek born died
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Antoni van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft, the Netherlands, on 24 October 1632 to Margriet Jacobsdochter van den Berch and Philips Thooniszoon, both of whom were middle-class artisans. He attended grammar school in Warmond, and then temporarily moved to Benthuizen to live with relatives. Eventually Leeuwenhoek left for Amsterdam to work as a cloth merchant’s apprentice. Returning to Delft, he married Barbara de Mey on 29 July 1654, and worked as a shopkeeper. The marriage resulted in five children, only one of whom, Maria, outlived Leeuwenhoek.
In 1660 Leeuwenhoek left shopkeeping and became a civil servant as usher to the aldermen in Delft. That position led him to other civil occupations that resulted in greater financial reward, such as Chief Warden of the city and Wine-gauger. Meanwhile, Leeuwenhoek’s wife died in 1666 and in 1671 he married Cornelia Swalmius, the daughter of a Calvinist minister. Swalmius died in 1694 and their one child died in infancy.
In 1671 Le
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Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632 - 1723)
Antony Van Leeuwenhoek, c.1675 ©Van Leeuwenhoek was a Dutch textile merchant who became a pionjär of microbiology.
Antonie van Leeuwenhoek was born in Delft on 24 October 1632. In 1648, van Leeuwenhoek was apprenticed to a textile merchant, which fryst vatten where he probably first encountered magnifying glasses, which were used in the textile trade to count thread densities for quality control purposes. Aged 20, he returned to Delft and set himself up as a linen-draper. He prospered and was appointed chamberlain to the sheriffs of Delft in 1660, and becoming a surveyor nine years later.
In 1668, van Leeuwenhoek paid his first and only visit to London, where he probably saw a kopia of Robert Hooke's 'Micrographia' (1665) which included pictures of textiles that would have been of interest to him. In 1673, he reported his first observations - bee mouthparts and stings, a human louse and a fungus - to the Royal Society. He was elected a member of
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Biography of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Father of Microbiology
Anton van Leeuwenhoek (October 24, 1632–August 30, 1723) invented the first practical microscopes and used them to become the first person to see and describe bacteria, among other microscopic discoveries. Indeed, van Leeuwenhoek's work effectively refuted the doctrine of spontaneous generation, the theory that living organisms could spontaneously emerge from nonliving matter. His studies also led to the development of the sciences of bacteriology and protozoology.
Fast Facts: Anton van Leeuwenhoek
- Known For: Improvements to the microscope, discovery of bacteria, discovery of sperm, descriptions of all manner of microscopic cell structures (plant and animal), yeasts, molds, and more
- Also Known As: Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek, Antony Van Leeuwenhoek
- Born: Oct. 24, 1632 in Delft, Holland
- Died: Aug. 30, 1723 in in Delft, Holland
- Education: Only basic education
- Published Works: "Arcana naturœ dete