upright stand. It could make small things look large. It was handy for looking closely at
cloth.
Soon, Anton felt a longing to build a more powerful microscope. He dreamed of
using it to make an important scientific discovery. He wanted to become famous. Three
decades later, he did.
For many years, Anton experimented with microscopes and lenses. Eventually he
constructed a very powerful microscope. If he had sold the concept to others, it would
have made him very rich. However, Anton refrained from surrendering his secret
to anyone. Instead, he wanted to use it to become famous. So he used his secret
microscope to study the natural world.
One day he was looking at saliva from his mouth with the microscope. In the saliva,
he saw numerous tiny particles. Some of them were moving! He thought that the
particles were tiny organisms. So he isolated them from each other and studied each
one carefully. Then he classified them into different categories. Some
were round. Others were long and had tails. All were alive.
Anton was so excited. He knew he could become famous
now. He was the first person to see these tiny organisms. So
he drew diagrams of the organisms and sent them to a group
of scientists in London. The scientists were sophisticated men
who did not believe tiny, animate organisms could live in our
mouths. Anton made a plea for them to come to Holland to
see the organisms with their own eyes. The men took a ferry to Holland and met Anton. They performed a careful review of
his work, and they conceded that he had made a
worthwhile discovery. Anton Van Leeuwenhoek
had discovered bacteria. After decades of
hard work, he had become famous.
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