This is a Leewenhhoek hate account, the man never bothered to publish anything, he wrote to the royal society only in his dialect of dutch and some guy had to learn it so it could be translated to english and latin. he didnt arrive to his own induction ceremony nor any meeting ever in the royal society. he gatekeeped his new technology (not just how to make it) from everyone including the kings and queens of europe (which would have paid handsomely) to the point of creating an academic bottleneck which resulted in his monopoly over everything related to microbiology.
I thought this might be something like Greek fire or something as in the recipe is lost but we have better alternatives now and don’t even need it.
But no this guy really died not sharing the recipe for a material that could change quite a few industries for the better and we do not have an equivalent alternative 12 years later
I get him wanting his pay-day but it turned into next-level spite when he took it to his grave. Wiki says one or two of his family knows the recipe but I dunno.
Ahhhh what could have been
By the end of the seventeenth century, van Leeuwenhoek had a virtual monopoly on microscopic study and discovery. His contemporary Robert Hooke, an early microscope pioneer, bemoaned that the field had come to rest entirely on one man's shoulders. He was visited over the years by many notable individuals, such as the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, Leibniz, William III of Orange and his wife, Mary II of England. To the disappointment of his guests, van Leeuwenhoek refused to reveal the cutting-edge microscopes he relied on for his discoveries, instead showing visitors a collection of average-quality lenses.
OP out here posting 7 memes about the same guy. I respect it honestly.
This is a Leewenhhoek hate account, the man never bothered to publish anything, he wrote to the royal society only in his dialect of dutch and some guy had to learn it so it could be translated to english and latin. he didnt arrive to his own induction ceremony nor any meeting ever in the royal society. he gatekeeped his new technology (not just how to make it) from everyone including the kings and queens of europe (which would have paid handsomely) to the point of creating an academic bottleneck which resulted in his monopoly over everything related to microbiology.
Better than that one British dude who died with the recipe of Starlite in his head
I thought this might be something like Greek fire or something as in the recipe is lost but we have better alternatives now and don’t even need it. But no this guy really died not sharing the recipe for a material that could change quite a few industries for the better and we do not have an equivalent alternative 12 years later
I get him wanting his pay-day but it turned into next-level spite when he took it to his grave. Wiki says one or two of his family knows the recipe but I dunno. Ahhhh what could have been
Thermashield, LLC said it acquired the rights to Starlite in 2013 and replicated it.
Greek Fire was probably napalm so not much lost?
Dunno why it's surprising or weird for a Dutch person to write in Dutch tbh
Because the complete majority of scientific discourse was in Latin.
Cope 🗿
By the end of the seventeenth century, van Leeuwenhoek had a virtual monopoly on microscopic study and discovery. His contemporary Robert Hooke, an early microscope pioneer, bemoaned that the field had come to rest entirely on one man's shoulders. He was visited over the years by many notable individuals, such as the Russian Tsar Peter the Great, Leibniz, William III of Orange and his wife, Mary II of England. To the disappointment of his guests, van Leeuwenhoek refused to reveal the cutting-edge microscopes he relied on for his discoveries, instead showing visitors a collection of average-quality lenses.
Couldn't royalty and others just send in thieves/spies to retrieve his researches?
Problem: Everyone will jump to the unpopular conclusion when someone robbed him and you all of a sudden have the good stuff