Antons+Life

Anton Van Leeuwenhock (1632-1723)
Anton Van Leeuwenhock originally born Thonius Philips van Leeuwenhock was born on October 24, 1632 in Dutch, Holland. He was born in a poor family and couldn't afford to put him into the scientific education.  ﻿ ﻿ His first job was a haberdasher and draper; a cloth merchant. He was also known to have worked as a surveyor, a wine assayer and as a minor city official. His hobby in life was a lens grinder. In 1668 he had learned how to grind lenses, make simple microscopes and observe with them. He had started to take an interest in microscopy when reading Robert's Hookes' book //micrographia.// He is known as an amatuer scientist. His simpily constructed microscopes were the most powerful of his day. Anton is known as "The Father of Microbiology". In 1654 Leeuwenhoek returned to Delft and married Barbara de Mey, who was to bear him five children.   He brought a house and a shop and set up his own cloth business.   He stayed there for the rest of his life. His wife died in1666. He then remarried in 1671 to his second wife who bore him one child.     