Tools of Discovery In 1676 Antonie van Leeuwenhoek peered at a drop of water through a magnifying lens he made himself Using this scientific tool the self-taught scientist made an amazing discovery tiny creatures he called animalcules They were protozoa single-celled creatures No one had seen them before Originally a cloth merchant van Leeuwenhoek probably used magnifying glasses to examine cloth as part of his business The tool helped merchants look at threads up close and determine the cloth’s quality Eventually van Leeuwenhoek became obsessed with making ever more powerful magnification devices His lenses were capable of magnifying objects over 200 times making them far more powerful than microscopes used at the time 4 van Leeuwenhoek 1632 1723
The protozoa van Leeuwenhoek observed were isolated from sources such as rainwater pond water and the human mouth The use of magnification tools dates back to Roman times Emperor Nero used a piece of emerald to help him see better Until the 1600s most lenses could only magnify things up to 10 times Van Leeuwenhoek refused to share his secrets for making his lenses and using light to illuminate his specimens For 100 years after van Leeuwenhoek died in 1723 no one saw his animalcules again 5
Uranus Herschel began his telescope-making career in 1773 by experimenting with relatively small refractors but certainly not in length one of them was 30 feet 9 14 meters long Tools help scientists not only discover new creatures but also distant worlds Like van Leeuwenhoek German musician William Herschel built his own scientific tools with the help of his sister Caroline Their home-built telescopes were far more powerful than those they could buy In 1781 Herschel made his first discovery the planet Uranus Most people thought the planet was a star but seeing more clearly with his telescope Herschel saw it was a planet 6 William Herschel 1738 1822
Herschel’s research did not stop there Through the years he cataloged nebulae nurseries where stars are born and studied the sun moon and planets within our solar system He determined that Saturn’s rings are really made of particles Without powerful telescopes these distant worlds would have remained a mystery In the hands of William Herschel the telescope became a powerful scientific tool The telescope displayed here was Herschel’s favorite his 20-foot 6 1 meter reflector Quite a Visionary Hans Lippershey invented the first telescope around 1608 Legend has it that two children playing with lenses in Lippershey’s eyeglass shop inspired his invention Looking through two lenses at once they noticed a weathervane on a church looked much closer Lippershey attached a lens on either end of a tube inventing the new science tool 7 Hans Lippershey 1570 1619
