b. October 24, 1632 and d. August 26, 1723

Dutch anatomist and physiologist. The “Father of Microscopy.” He was a Dutch linen merchant, but constructed and used the microscope. With simple lenses, magnifying less than sixty diameters, he discovered, in 1674, in putrifying fluids and in the discharges of the body, minute, moving, living particles which he called “animalculæ.” The theory that these “animalculæ” might be the cause of all disease was advanced. Pasteur, Koch and Cohn proved this a fallacy in 1876. In 1677 Leuwenhoeck first discovered the so-called animalcules in the spermatic fluid andn oticed that seeds contained the young plant in miniature; in 1690 he discovered the continuity of the arteries with the veins, the chemical changes of the blood and the structure of the laminæ, which compose the crystalline lens of the eye. The discovery and perfection of the microscope was disputed, being claimed by Leuwenhoeck and Hartzoecker. The priority of invention is not determined.

Wisdom, awful wisdom, which inspects,
Discerns, compares, weighs, separates, infers,
Seizes the right and holds it to the last;
How rare! In senates, synods, sought in vain;
Or, if there found, ’tis sacred to the few.

—Night Thoughts: Young

b. October 23, 1762 and d. April 17, 1843

American inventor. He patented a revolving steam engine July 14, 1815. On March 25, 1795 a patent was issued to him for a steam engine, the power being applied by crank motion to propel boats of any size.

Ah! who ever thinks of the bold engineer,
As he stands by his weapon of steel,
And spurs on a steed to its maddened career,
In a thundering and ponderous reel?
Through the daylight, into the night, dark, dark,
He knows no affright, o’er ridges and bridges,
decayed or strong,
How god-like he stands as he rushes along!
Who thinks of the bold engineer?

—The Engineer

But pent and caged, unknowing
Which way the fight incline,
I keep my engines going
Beneath the water-line.
No praise or blame to spur me
In this my hour of trial,
I stand and grip the lever,
I stand and watch the dial.

—J. H. K. Adkin

214—Grist mills were in use in Ireland.

1078—Tide mills were in use in Venice.

Morley Fletcher first constructed large wave-motors for the utilization of the rising and falling of the waves.

1840—Jearum Atkins devised a water-wheel planned to absorb the momentum of moving stream.

b. October 23, 1815 and d. ?

American inventor of farming implements. Introduced the Manny harvesting machine with Wood’s improvements. He improved and invented forms of mowers and reapers. His works are probably the most extensive of their kind in the world. He conducted his business alone until 1866, when it was organized into a stock company.

By thee the plowshare rents the matted plain,
Inhumes in level rows the living grain;
Intrusive forests quit the cultured ground,
And Ceres laughs with golden fillets crown’d

—Botanic Garden: Dr. Darwin

What is a farm but a mute gospel? The chaff and
the wheat, weeds and plants, blight, rain, insects,
sun-it is a sacred emblem from the first furrow of
spring to the last stack which the snow of winter
overtakes in the field.

—Nature: Emerson

1799, April-1869, May—Patrick Bell lived. He was inventor of an early type of a reaping machine, 1826. It was pushed before the team of horses. It lacked nothing in the way of proper gearing, but its cutting apparatus was defective.

1850—E. Danforth produced a mwoing machine, with two cutter blades moving in opposite directions.

1851—The first mowing-machines were made in United States.