Cardboard van Leeuwenhoek microscope

This is a replica of Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's microscope made from cardboard, bamboo skewers and a lens made from a pen light.

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek's microscope enabled him to see single celled organisms which he called "animalcules" and helped earn him the name "the Father of Microbiology".

Step 1 Material:

• Cardboard (from cereal boxes etc.)
• Corrugated cardboard
• Bamboo skewers
• Light bulb from penlight (not an LED!)
• Paint
• Tape
• Glue
• Template (the template.pdf file)

Comments

[chonny]

great thx will try

[chaitanyak]

nice and simple! i like it!

[rafaaatrilogy]

A broken Webcam/disposable camera or a laser pointer lens would work fine, too. Great instructable, it's perfect!

[ratgod]

how about the lens from an old CD/DVD driver? would that work?

[ChrysN]

Thanks!

[Kiteman]

Wow. How well does the bulb-lens work? I've tried molten-glass beads before, but never been able to get a decent image.

[ChrysN]

The magnification from the bulb-lens was a bit disappointing, I think it's barely 10X. I was hoping to try to make the glass beads myself (if I get a hold of a Bunsen burner). The guy at this site makes a more authentic replica from brass said that you can get the glass spheres at Edmund Scientific, but when I checked, they no longer have them.

[Goodhart]

Check occasionally with American Science and Surplus. They tend to have stuff others don't have (most of the time, for good reason) and their inventory grows and changes on a regular basis...

[ChrysN]

Cool, will try. Thanks for the link!

[4thAce]

You might want to smooth off the sharp glass edges of the bulb with some abrasive paper, since you wouldn't want to cut yourself or poke your eye with them.

[ChrysN]

Yes, good idea, that could really hurt.

[PKM]

Very nice! I guess it won't be practical to take photos of the results you get through this thing. Have you considered replacing the focus skewer with a self-tapping wood screw you could screw through the cardboard? That way it could actually work as a screw adjuster rather than a slide.

[ChrysN]

Unfortunatley, I wasn't able to get my camera to focus on the image through the lens. A self tapping wood screw sounds like a good idea, adjusting the focus is a bit tricky with the skewer. Thanks.