MICROSCOPE, SIMPLE

A microscope that has a single converging lens (or a combination of lenses that function optically as a single converging lens). Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723) made good use of the simple microscope to look at the life within a drop of water, and such. The magnifying properties of lenses had been well known in ancient times (for example to the Greeks and Romans) but it was not until about 1600 that it became possible to make small lenses with the precision needed to make a microscope.