title: How many instances are created for a HTTP servlet
body: <p>I am going through the book for <a href="http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920029571.do" rel="noreferrer">"Java Web Services: Up and Running, 2nd Edition"</a> and came across a statement that says:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>A web server such as Tomcat can instantiate arbitrarily many instances
    of a servlet, although the number is typically small (e.g., 1 through
    4). The web server itself makes the decision.</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>So it means if I create a servlet then the server can create more than 1 instance but this is in contradiction to the explanation given in many posts for example if I check in this post : "<a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10577414/10-clients-requests-for-a-servlet-how-many-servlet-instances-are-created">10 clients requests for a Servlet.How many servlet instances are created</a>" then it clearly states that:</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Only one instance of servlet exist (per classloader) , and each
    request will be served on its own thread</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>So please help me in understanding this, does a server can create more than 1 instance for a servlet?</p>