Seeing closer: the birth of microscopy

Hooke also studied the forms of ice crystals in frozen water, in snow, and even in frozen urine.

These hand-drawn illustrations from the Royal Society collection were later reproduced in Micrographia and are some of the few surviving originals from the book.

Hailed by Samuel Pepys (1633-1703) as 'the most ingenious book that I ever read', Micrographia inspired a generation of natural philosophers. It included fellow microscopists Jan Swammerdam (1637-1680), Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), Nehemiah Grew (1641-1712) and Marcello Malpighi (1628-1694).

Known as the father of plant anatomy, Grew mastered the microscope to reveal and record plant structures, from root to flower. Grew was an early Curator of the Royal Society Repository, as was known the collection of scientific instruments, natural history specimens and   paintings accumulated by the Fellows.

  Dutch anatomist, physician and biologist Swammerdam continued Hooke’s microscopic observations of insects in more systematic research which employed a single lens microscope. From the late 1660s, he dissected and studied the development of these creatures, noting their internal organs and methods of reproduction – he concluded that insects were not the product of spontaneous generation.

  The Italian physician Marcello Malpighi is known as the father of microscopical anatomy, histology, physiology and embryology. The Royal Society holds a rich collection of his letters and drawings, retracing his anatomical experiments, observations and theories. When Malpighi lost his microscopes in a fire, the Royal Society sent him lenses to allow him to pursue his work.

This twentieth century replica of Leeuwenhoek's microscope shows how beautifully simple it was.

Its particular strength resided in the quality of the lens.

The Dutch pioneer of the microscope sent his written observations to the Royal Society, often with illustrations.

As additional evidence, he would attach packets of specimens to his letters so that Fellows might repeat his observations.

Leeuwenhoek used his own body as a source for his science. Some of the first sightings of bacteria came from his own dental plaque.

In the letter to the Royal Society that accompanies this illustration, he gave an intimate portrait of the 'boughs and branches' - surface scrapings from his tongue.

Highly skilled tradesmen and scientists themselves were responsible for the fabrication of the early microscopes. Compound microscopes were first experimented with by Hans and Zacharias Jansen, two Dutch spectacle-makers in the 1590s. Compound microscopes have two optical components: an objective lens which focuses on the object; and an eyepiece which further magnifies and projects the image onto the retina of the eye.

This engraved portrait of naturalist Henry Baker (1698-1774) shows one of his microscopes in the background.

Baker collaborated with instrument-maker John Cuff (1708-1772) on designing such new instruments.

Baker wrote instructional microscope guides for beginners.

In this plate he shows the tripod-mounted instrument designed by Edmund Culpeper (c.1670-1738) that was popular during the 1730s.

In this appendix to the Philosophia Britannica (1759), the instrument maker Benjamin Martin (1704-1782) illustrates the latest improvements in compound and solar microscopes.

He described the former as 'universal’ and boasted of an additional 'between-lens' for improved resolution.

William Cary (1759-1825), a London-based cartographer and instrument maker produced and marketed this boxed naturalist’s microscope.

The accompanying slides include, inevitably, a flea, in homage to Hooke’s famous Micrographia illustration.

The later nineteenth century saw the commencement of the new science of germ theory, which placed the microscope at the forefront of medical research.

The development of binocular optics by the Leitz company (often associated with the Leica camera) was of primary importance to scientists.

As well as experimenting with new instruments, scientists used different methods for preparing samples to observe reactions.

These samples include lung sections taken from goats during compressed air experiments by Commander Guybon Chesney Castell Damant (1881-1963) and the physiologist John Scott Haldane (1860-1936).

Damant, Haldane and Arthur Edwin Boycott (1877-1938) collaborated on a paper that made the case for staged decompression of divers and modern dive tables.