Robert Hooke, FRS (18 July 1635 – 3 March 1703) was an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
natural philosopher,
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
and
polymathA polymath is a person whose expertise fills a significant number of subject areas. In less formal terms, a polymath may simply refer to someone who is very knowledgeable...
who played an important role in the
scientific revolutionIn the history of science, the scientific revolution was a period when new ideas in physics, astronomy, biology, human anatomy, chemistry, and other sciences led to a rejection of doctrines that had prevailed from Ancient Greece through the Middle Ages, and laid the foundation of modern science...
, through both experimental and theoretical work.
His life divides roughly into three parts: early life as a brilliant but impecunious scientific inquirer; the period after the
great fire of 1666The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...
in which he achieved great wealth and standing due to his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty; and later life dogged by ill-health and dominated by jealous intellectual disputes. This last is primarily responsible for his relative obscurity in the centuries since his death.
Hooke is known principally for his law of elasticity (
Hooke's LawIn mechanics, and physics, Hooke's law of elasticity is an approximation that states that the extension of a spring is in direct proportion with the load added to it as long as this load does not exceed the elastic limit...
) and for his work as "the father of
microscopyMicroscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view samples or objects. There are three well-known branches of microscopy, optical, electron and scanning probe microscopy....
" — it was Hooke who coined the term "
cellThe cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos...
" to describe the basic unit of life, but was for over two centuries after his death an obscure figure. Even now there is much less written about him than might be expected from the sheer industry of his life: he was at one time simultaneously the curator of experiments of the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
and a member of its council,
Gresham Professor of GeometryThe Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, gives free educational lectures to the general public. The college was founded for this purpose in 1596 / 7, when it appointed seven professors; this has since increased to eight and in addition the college now has visiting professors.The...
and a Surveyor to the City of London after the
fire of 1666The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...
, in which capacity he appears to have performed more than half of all the surveys after the fire. He was also an important
architectAn architect is trained and licensed in planning and designing buildings, and participates in supervising the construction of a building. Etymologically, architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton , i.e. chief builder...
of his time, though few of his buildings now survive and some of those are generally misattributed, and was instrumental in devising a set of planning controls for London whose influence remains today. One biographer has characterised him as "England's
LeonardoLeonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer....
".
Hooke studied at Wadham College during the
ProtectorateA protectorate, in international law, is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity. In exchange for this, the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations, which may vary greatly, depending on the real nature of...
where he became one of a tightly-knit group of ardent
RoyalistA royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of government, but not necessarily a particular monarch...
s centred around
John WilkinsJohn Wilkins was an English clergyman and author. He was founder and first secretary of the Royal Society in 1660 and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....
. Here he was employed as an assistant to
Thomas WillisThomas Willis was an English doctor who played an important part in the history of anatomy, neurology and psychiatry. He was a founding member of the Royal Society.-Life:...
and to
Robert BoyleRobert Boyle was a natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, inventor, and gentleman scientist, also noted for his writings in theology. He is best known for the formulation of Boyle's law...
, for whom he built the vacuum pumps used in Boyle's gas law experiments. He built some of the earliest
Gregorian telescopeThe Gregorian telescope is a type of reflecting telescope designed by Scottish mathematician and astronomer, James Gregory in the 17th century and first built in 1673 by Robert Hooke...
s, observed the rotations of Mars and Jupiter, and, based on his observations of fossils, was an early proponent of biological evolution. He investigated the phenomenon of
refractionRefraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in its velocity. This is most commonly observed when a wave passes from one medium to another...
, deducing the wave theory of light, and was the first to suggest that matter expands when heated and that air is made of small particles separated by relatively large distances. He performed pioneering work in the field of surveying and map-making and was involved in the work that led to the first modern plan-form map, though his plan for London on a grid system was rejected in favour of rebuilding along the existing routes. He also came near to deducing that gravity follows an inverse square law, and that such a relation governs the motions of the planets, an idea which was subsequently developed by Newton. Much of Hooke's scientific work was conducted in his capacity as curator of experiments of the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
, a post he held from 1662, or as part of the household of Robert Boyle.
Hooke was also irascible, at least in later life, proud, and prone to take umbrage with intellectual competitors, though he was by all accounts also a staunch friend and ally and was loyal always to the circle of ardent
RoyalistA royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of government, but not necessarily a particular monarch...
s with whom he had his early training at Wadham College, particularly
Christopher WrenSir Christopher Wren was one of the best known and highest acclaimed English architects in history,...
. His reputation suffered after his death and this is popularly attributed to a dispute with
Isaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton FRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is perceived and considered by a substantial number of scholars and the general public as one of the most influential men in history...
over credit for his work on gravitation and to a lesser degree light; Newton, as President of the Royal Society, did much to obscure Hooke, including, it is said, destroying (or failing to preserve) the only known portrait of the man. It did not help that the first life of Wren,
Parentalis, was written by Wren's son, and tended to exaggerate Wren's work over all others. Hooke's reputation was revived during the twentieth century through studies of
Robert GuntherRobert Theodore Gunther was a historian of science and founder of the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford....
and Margaret 'Espinasse, and after a long period of relative obscurity he is now recognized as one of the most important scientists of his age.
Biography
Much of what is known of Hooke's early life comes from an autobiography that he commenced in 1696, but did not complete. This was referenced by Richard Waller in his introduction to the
The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, M.D. S.R.S., printed in 1705. The work of Waller, along with John Ward's
Lives of the Gresham Professors and
John AubreyJohn Aubrey was an English antiquary and writer, best known as the author of the collection of short biographical pieces usually referred to as Brief Lives and as the discoverer of the Aubrey holes in Stonehenge....
's
Brief Lives, form the major near-contemporaneous biographical accounts of Hooke.
Early life
Robert Hooke was born in 1635 in
FreshwaterFreshwater is a large village and civil parish at the western end of the Isle of Wight, England. Freshwater Bay is a small cove on the south coast of the Island which also gives its name to the nearby part of Freshwater....
on the
Isle of WightThe Isle of Wight is an English island and a county, located 3-5 miles from the south coast of the mainland, in the English Channel. It is separated from mainland England by the Solent and is situated south of the county of Hampshire...
to John Hooke and Cecily Gyles. Robert was the last of four children, two brothers and two sisters, and there was an age difference of seven years between him and the next youngest. Their father ecclesiastically served the Church of England, specifically as the curate of Freshwater's Church of All Saints; his three brothers were also ministers. Robert Hooke was expected to succeed in his education and join the Church.
John Hooke also was in charge of a local school, and so was able to teach Robert, at least partly at home perhaps due to the boy's frail health. He was a Royalist and almost certainly a member of a group who went to pay their respects to
Charles IICharles II may refer to:* Charles the Bald , king of the West Franks and Holy Roman Emperor* Charles II of Naples * Charles II of Alençon * Charles II of Navarre * Charles II, Duke of Lorraine...
when he escaped to the Isle of Wight. Robert, too, grew up to be a staunch monarchist.
As a youth, Robert Hooke was fascinated by observation, mechanical works, and drawing, interests that would be pursued in various ways throughout his life. He dismantled a brass clock and built a wooden replica that, by all accounts, worked "well enough", and he learned to draw, making his own materials from coal, chalk and ruddle (Iron ore).
On his father's death in 1648, Robert was left a sum of one hundred pounds that enabled him to buy an apprenticeship; with his poor health throughout his life but evident mechanical facility his father had it in mind that he might become a
watchmakerA watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since virtually all watches are now factory made, most modern watchmakers just repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand...
or
limnerLimner is a term applied to the art of untrained and unnamed painters of the American Colonies, or to the artists themselves. Typically the art is ornamental decoration for signs, clock faces, fire buckets, fire screens, etc...
, though Hooke was also interested in painting. Hooke was an apt student, so although he went to London to take up an apprenticeship, and studied briefly with Samuel Cowper and
Peter LelySir Peter Lely was a painter of Dutch origin, whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court.-Life:...
, he was soon able to enter
Westminster SchoolThe Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools,, with the highest Oxbridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college...
in London, under
Dr. BusbyThe Rev. Dr. Richard Busby was an English clergyman, and headmaster of Westminster School.He was born at Lutton in Lincolnshire, and educated at Westminster, where he first showed his academic promise by gaining a King's Scholarship. From Westminster Busby duly proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford,...
, where he lodged his hundred pounds. Hooke quickly mastered Latin and Greek, made some study of Hebrew, and mastered
Euclid's ElementsEuclid's Elements is a mathematical and geometric treatise consisting of 13 books written by the Greek mathematician Euclid in Alexandria circa 300 BC. It comprises a collection of definitions, postulates , propositions , and mathematical proofs of the propositions...
. Here, too, he embarked on his life-long study of
mechanicsMechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behaviour of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effect of the bodies on their environment....
.
It appears that Hooke was one of a group of students whom Busby educated in parallel to the main work of the school. Contemporary accounts say he was "not much seen" in the school, and this appears to be true of others in a similar position. Busby, an ardent and outspoken Royalist (he had the school observe a fast-day on the anniversary of the King's beheading), was by all accounts trying to preserve the nascent spirit of scientific inquiry that had begun to flourish in Carolean England but which was at odds with the literal Biblical teachings of the Protectorate. To Busby and his select students the Anglican Church was a framework to support the spirit of inquiry into God's work, those who were able were destined by God to explore and study His creation, and the priesthood functioned as teachers to explain it to those who were less able. This was exemplified in the person of
George HooperGeorge Hooper was a learned and influential high churchman of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He served as bishops of the Welsh diocese, St Asaph, and later for the diocese of Bath and Wells, as well as chaplain to members of the royal family.-Early life:George Hooper was...
, the
Bishop of Bath and WellsThe Bishop of Bath and Wells heads the Church of England Diocese of Bath and Wells in the Province of Canterbury in England.The present diocese covers the vast majority of the county of Somerset and a small area of Dorset. The Episcopal seat is located in the Cathedral Church of Saint Andrew in...
, whom Busby described as "the best scholar, the finest gentleman and will make the completest bishop that ever was educated at Westminster School".
Oxford
In 1653, Hooke (who had also undertaken a course of twenty lessons on the
organThe pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and loudness throughout the keyboard compass...
) secured a chorister's place at
Christ ChurchThis article is about the Oxford college. For other uses, see Christ Church or Christchurch .Christ Church , is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
,
OxfordThe University of Oxford , located in the UK city of Oxford, is the oldest surviving university in the English-speaking world and is regarded as one of the world's leading academic institutions. Although the exact date of foundation remains unclear, there is evidence of teaching there as far back...
. He was employed as a "chimical assistant" to Dr
Thomas WillisThomas Willis was an English doctor who played an important part in the history of anatomy, neurology and psychiatry. He was a founding member of the Royal Society.-Life:...
, for whom Hooke developed a great admiration. There he met the natural philosopher
Robert BoyleRobert Boyle was a natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, inventor, and gentleman scientist, also noted for his writings in theology. He is best known for the formulation of Boyle's law...
, and gained employment as his assistant from about 1655 to 1662, constructing, operating, and demonstrating Boyle's "machina Boyleana" or air pump. He did not take his Master of Arts until 1662 or 1663. In 1659 Hooke described some elements of a method of heavier-than-air flight to Wilkins, but concluded that human muscles were insufficient to the task.
Hooke himself characterised his Oxford days as the foundation of his life-long passion for science, and the friends he made there were of paramount importance to him throughout his career, particularly
Christopher WrenSir Christopher Wren was one of the best known and highest acclaimed English architects in history,...
. Wadham was then under the guidance of
John WilkinsJohn Wilkins was an English clergyman and author. He was founder and first secretary of the Royal Society in 1660 and Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death....
, who had a profound impact on Hooke and those around him. Wilkins was also a Royalist, and acutely conscious of the turmoil and uncertainty of the times. There was a sense of urgency in preserving the scientific work which they perceived as being threatened by the Protectorate. Wilkins' "philosophical meetings" in his study were clearly important, though few records survive except for the experiments Boyle conducted in 1658 and published in 1660. This group went on to form the nucleus of the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
. Hooke developed an air pump for Boyle's experiments based on the pump of Valentine Greatorex, which was considered, in Hooke's words, "too gross to perform any great matter."
It is known that Hooke had a particularly keen eye, and was an adept mathematician, neither of which applied to Boyle. Gunther suggests that Hooke probably made the observations and may well have developed the mathematics of
Boyle's LawBoyle's law is one of several gas laws and a special case of the ideal gas law. Boyle's law describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system...
. Regardless, it is clear that Hooke was a valued assistant to Boyle and the two retained a mutual high regard.
A chance surviving copy of Willis' pioneering
De anima brutorum, a gift the author, was chosen by Hooke from Wilkins' library on his death as a memento at
John TillotsonJohn Tillotson was an Archbishop of Canterbury .
-Curate and rector:Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. He entered as a pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge, in 1647, graduated in 1650 and was made fellow of his college in 1651...
's invitation. This book is now in the
Wellcome LibraryThe Wellcome Library is founded on the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome , whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome's interest was the history of medicine in a broad sense and included subjects like alchemy or...
. The book and its inscription in Hooke's hand are a testament ot the lasting influence of Wilkins and his circle on the young Hooke.
Watch escapement
In 1655, according to his autobiographical notes, Hooke began to acquaint himself with astronomy, through the good offices of John Ward. Hooke applied himself to the improvement of the
pendulumA pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so it can swing freely.When a pendulum is displaced from its resting equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position. When released, the restoring force will cause it...
and in 1657 or 1658, he began to improve on pendulum mechanisms, studying the work of Riccioli, and going on to study both gravitation and the mechanics of timekeeping. Hooke recorded that he conceived of a way to determine
longitudeLongitude , identified by the Greek letter lambda , is the geographic coordinate most commonly used in cartography and global navigation for east-west measurement...
(then a critical problem for navigation), and with the help of Boyle and others he attempted to patent it. In the process, Hooke demonstrated a pocket-watch of his own devising, fitted with a
coil springA Coil spring, also known as a helical spring, is a mechanical device, which is typically used to store energy and subsequently release it, to absorb shock, or to maintain a force between contacting surfaces...
attached to the arbour of the balance. Hooke's ultimate failure to secure sufficiently lucrative terms for the exploitation of this idea resulted in its being shelved, and evidently caused him to become more jealous of his inventions. There is substantial evidence to state with reasonable confidence, as Ward,
AubreyOf Teutonic origin, "Aubrey" means "Fair Ruler of the Little People", or "King of the Elves" . The name Alberich is a more common Germanic variant, with the syllable 'Alb' translating as "Elf" and 'Ric' representing "power". In the twelfth century, a Christian saint and abbot named St. Aubrey...
, Waller and others all do, that at the very least Hooke developed the
springA spring is an elastic object used to store mechanical energy. Springs are usually made out of hardened steel. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealed steel and hardened after fabrication...
escapementIn mechanical watches and clocks, an escapement is a device which converts continuous rotational motion into an oscillating or back and forth motion....
independently of and some fifteen years before
HuygensHuygens can refer to:People* Constantijn Huygens , Dutch poet and composer* Christiaan Huygens , Dutch mathematician, physicist and astronomer, son of Constantijn Huygens* Constantijn Huygens, Jr...
, who published his own work in
Journal de Scavans in February of 1675. Henry Sully, writing in Paris in 1717, described the
watchA watch is a timepiece that is made to be worn on a person. It is usually a wristwatch, worn on the wrist with a strap or bracelet. In addition to the time, modern watches often display the day, date, month and year, and electronic watches may have many other functions.Most inexpensive and...
escapement as "an admirable invention of which Dr. Hooke, formerly professor of geometry in Gresham College at London, was the inventor."
DerhamWilliam Derham was an English clergyman and natural philosopher. He was the first man known to measure the speed of sound.-Life:...
also attributes it to Hooke.
Royal Society
The
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
was founded in 1660, and in April 1661 the society debated a short tract on the rising of water in slender glass pipes, in which Hooke reported that the height water rose was related to the bore of the pipe (due to what is now termed
capillary actionCapillary action, capillarity, capillary motion, or wicking refers to two phenomena:1 The movement of liquids in thin tubes.
2 The flow of liquids through porous media, such as the flow of water through soil....
). His explanation of this phenomenon was subsequently published in
Micrography Observ. issue 6, in which he also explored the nature of "the fluidity of gravity". On November 5, 1661, Sir
Robert MoraySir Robert Moray FRS , was a Scottish soldier, freemason and natural philosopher. He was well known to Charles I and Charles II, and French Cardinals Richelieu and Cardinal Mazarin...
proposed that a Curator be appointed to furnish the society with Experiments, and this was unanimously passed with Hooke being named. His appointment was made on 12 November, with thanks recorded to Dr. Boyle for releasing him to the Society's employment.
In 1664, Sir John Cutler settled an annual gratuity of fifty pounds on the Society for the founding of a
Mechanick Lecture, and the Fellows appointed Hooke to this task. On June 27 1664 he was confirmed to the office, and on 11 January 1665 was named
Curator by Office for life with an additional salary of £30 to Cutler's annuity.
Hooke's role at the Royal Society was to demonstrate experiments from his own methods or at the suggestion of members. Among his earliest demonstrations were discussions of the nature of air, the implosion of glass bubbles which had been sealed with comprehensive hot air, and demonstrating that the
Pabulum vitae and
flammae were one and the same. He also demonstrated that a dog could be kept alive with its thorax opened, provided air was pumped in and out of its lungs, and noting the difference between venous and arterial
bloodBlood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's cells — such as nutrients and oxygen — and transports waste products away from those same cells....
. There were also experiments on the subject of gravity, the falling of objects, the weighing of bodies and measuring of barometric pressure at different heights, and
pendulumA pendulum is a weight suspended from a pivot so it can swing freely.When a pendulum is displaced from its resting equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position. When released, the restoring force will cause it...
s up to 200 ft long.
Instruments were devised to measure a second of arc in the movement of the sun or other stars, to measure the strength of
gunpowderGunpowder, also called black powder, is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate. It burns rapidly, producing volumes of hot solids and gases which can be used as a propellant in firearms and as a pyrotechnic composition in fireworks. The term gunpowder also refers broadly to any...
, and in particular an engine to cut teeth for watches, much finer than could be managed by hand, an invention which was, by Hooke's death, in constant use.
In 1663 and 1664 Hooke produced his
microscopicMicroscopic or Micro is a term used to describe objects smaller than those that can easily be seen by the naked eye and which require a lens or microscope to see them clearly.-History:...
al observations, subsequently collated in
MicrographiaMicrographia is a historical book by Robert Hooke, detailing the then twenty-eight year-old Hooke's observations through various lenses. Published in September 1665, it was an immediate best-seller.-Observations:...
in 1665.
On March 20, 1664, Hooke succeeded Arthur Dacres as
Gresham Professor of GeometryThe Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, gives free educational lectures to the general public. The college was founded for this purpose in 1596 / 7, when it appointed seven professors; this has since increased to eight and in addition the college now has visiting professors.The...
. Hooke received the degree of "Doctor of Physic" in December, 1691.
Personality and disputes
Much has been written about the unpleasant side of Hooke's personality, starting with comments by his first biographer, Richard Waller, that Hooke was "in person, but despicable" and "melancholy, mistrustful, and jealous." Waller's comments influenced other writers for well over two centuries, so that a picture of Hooke as a disgruntled, selfish, anti-social curmudgeon dominates many older books and articles. For example, Arthur Berry said that Hooke "claimed credit for most of the scientific discoveries of the time." Sullivan wrote that Hooke was "positively unscrupulous" and possessing an "uneasy apprehensive vanity" in dealings with Newton. Manuel used the phrase "cantankerous, envious, vengeful" in his description. More described Hooke having both a "cynical temperament" and a "caustic tongue." Andrade was more sympathetic, but still used the adjectives "difficult", "suspicious", and "irritable" in describing Hooke.
The publication of Hooke's diary in 1935 revealed other sides of the man that 'Espinasse, in particular, has detailed carefully. She writes that "the picture which is usually painted of Hooke as a morose and envious recluse is completely false.". Hooke interacted with noted craftsmen such as
Thomas TompionThomas Tompion was an English master clockmaker and watchmaker known today as the father of English watchmaking. His work includes some of the most important clocks and watches in the world and his work commands huge prices whenever it appears at auction...
, the clockmaker, and Christopher Cocks (Cox), an instrument maker. Hooke met often with Christopher Wren, with whom he shared many interests, and had a lasting friendship with
John AubreyJohn Aubrey was an English antiquary and writer, best known as the author of the collection of short biographical pieces usually referred to as Brief Lives and as the discoverer of the Aubrey holes in Stonehenge....
. Hooke's diaries also make frequent reference to meetings at coffeehouses and taverns, and to dinners with Robert Boyle. He took tea on many occasions with his lab assistant, Harry Hunt. Within his family, Hooke took both a niece and a cousin into his home, teaching them mathematics.
Robert Hooke spent his life largely on the Isle of Wight, at Oxford, and in London. He never married, but his diary shows that he was not without affections, and more, for others. On 3 March 1703, Hooke died in London, having amassed a sizable sum of money, which was found in his room at Gresham College. He was buried at
St Helen's BishopsgateSt Helen's Bishopsgate is a large conservative evangelical Anglican church, in Lime Street ward, in the City of London, close to the Lloyd's building and the 'Gherkin'.-History:...
, but the precise location of his grave is unknown.
There is little doubt that Hooke was prone to intellectual jealousy. His disputes with Newton over credit for work on gravitation and the planets, and with Oldenburg over credit for the watch escapement, are but two well-known examples, and he was apt to use ciphers and guard his ideas. As curator of Experiments to the Royal Society he was responsible for demonstrating many ideas sent in to the Society, and there is evidence that he would subsequently assume some credit for these ideas. Hooke also was immensely busy and thus unable – or in some cases unwilling, pending a way of profiting from the enterprise via letters patent – to develop all of his own ideas. This was a time of immense scientific progress, and numerous ideas were developed in several places simultaneously.
None of this should distract from Hooke's inventiveness, his remarkable experimental facility, and his capacity for hard work. His ideas about gravitation, and his claim of priority for the inverse square law, are outlined below. He was granted a large number of patents for inventions and refinements in the fields of elasticity, optics, and barometry. The Royal Society's Hooke papers (recently discovered after disappearing when Newton took over) will open up a modern reassessment.
Mechanics
In 1660, Hooke discovered
the lawIn mechanics, and physics, Hooke's law of elasticity is an approximation that states that the extension of a spring is in direct proportion with the load added to it as long as this load does not exceed the elastic limit...
of
elasticityIn physics, elasticity is the physical property of a material when it returns to its original shape after the stress under which it deforms is removed. The relative amount of deformation is called the strain.- Modelling elasticity :...
which bears his name and which describes the linear variation of
tensionIn physics, tension is the magnitude of the pulling force exerted by a string, cable, chain, or similar object on another object. It is the opposite of compression. As tension is the magnitude of a force, it is measured in newtons and is always measured parallel to the string on which it applies...
with extension in an elastic spring. He first described this discovery in the anagram "ceiiinosssttuv", whose solution he published in 1678 as "Ut tensio, sic vis" meaning "As the extension, so the force." Hooke's work on elasticity culminated, for practical purposes, in his development of the
balance springA balance spring, or hairspring, is a fine spiral or helical spring used in mechanical watches, marine chronometers, and other timekeeping mechanisms to control the rate of vibration of the balance wheel...
or hairspring, which for the first time enabled a portable timepiece - a watch - to keep time with reasonable accuracy. A bitter dispute between Hooke and
Christiaan HuygensChristiaan Huygens, FRS was a prominent Dutch mathematician, astronomer, physicist, horologist, and writer of early science fiction...
on the priority of this invention was to continue for centuries after the death of both; but a note dated 12 June 1670 in the Hooke Folio (see
External links below), describing a demonstration of a balance-controlled watch before the Royal Society, has been held to favour Hooke's claim.
It is interesting from a twentieth-century vantage point that Hooke first announced his law of elasticity as an
anagramAn anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place. Someone who creates anagrams is called an anagrammatist...
. This was a method sometimes used by scientists, such as Hooke, Huygens, Galileo, and others, to establish priority for a discovery without revealing details.
Hooke became Curator of Experiments in 1662 to the newly founded
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
, and took responsibility for experiments performed at its weekly meetings. This was a position he held for over 40 years. While this position kept him in the thick of science in Britain and beyond, it also led to some heated arguments with other scientists, such as Huygens (see above) and particularly with
Isaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton FRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is perceived and considered by a substantial number of scholars and the general public as one of the most influential men in history...
and the Royal Society's
Henry OldenburgHenry Oldenburg was a German theologian known as a diplomat and a natural philosopher. He was one of the foremost intelligencers of Europe of the seventeenth century, with a network of correspondents to rival those of Fabri de Peiresc, Marin Mersenne and Ismaël Boulliau...
. In 1664 Hooke also was appointed Professor of
GeometryGeometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers....
at
Gresham CollegeGresham College is an unusual institution of higher learning off Holborn in central London. It enrolls no students and grants no degrees. The Collège de France offers perhaps a Parisian equivalent....
in London and Cutlerian Lecturer in Mechanics.
On 8 July 1680, Hooke observed the
nodal patternsCymatics , also known as modal phenomena, is the study of visible sound and vibration, typically on the surface of a plate, diaphragm, or membrane. Directly visualizing vibrations involves using sound to excite media often in the form of particles, pastes, and liquids...
associated with the
modes of vibrationA normal mode of an oscillating system is a pattern of motion in which all parts of the system move sinusoidally with the same frequency. The frequencies of the normal modes of a system are known as its natural frequencies or resonant frequencies...
of glass plates. He ran a bow along the edge of a glass plate covered with flour, and saw the nodal patterns emerge.
Gravitation
While many of his contemporaries believed in the aether as a medium for transmitting attraction or repulsion between separated celestial bodies, Hooke argued for an attracting principle of gravitation in
MicrographiaMicrographia is a historical book by Robert Hooke, detailing the then twenty-eight year-old Hooke's observations through various lenses. Published in September 1665, it was an immediate best-seller.-Observations:...
of 1665. Hooke’s 1666 Royal society lecture “On gravity” added two further principles - that all bodies move in straight lines till deflected by some force and that the attractive force is stronger for closer bodies. Hooke’s 1670 Gresham lecture explained that gravitation applied to “all celestiall bodys” and added the principles that the gravitating power decreases with distance and that in the absence of any such power bodies move in straight lines.
Hooke published his ideas about the "System of the World" again in somewhat developed form in 1674, as an addition to "An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth from Observations". Hooke announced in 1674 that he planned to "explain a System of the World differing in many particulars from any yet known", based on three "Suppositions": that "all Coelestial Bodies whatsoever, have an attraction or gravitating power towards their own Centers" [and] "they do also attract all the other Coelestial Bodies that are within the sphere of their activity"; that "all bodies whatsoever that are put into a direct and simple motion, will so continue to move forward in a straight line, till they are by some other effectual powers deflected and bent..."; and that "these attractive powers are so much the more powerful in operating, by how much the nearer the body wrought upon is to their own Centers". Thus Hooke clearly postulated mutual attractions between the Sun and planets, in a way that increased with nearness to the attracting body.
Hooke's statements up to 1674 made no mention, however, that an inverse square law applies or might apply to these attractions. Hooke's gravitation was also not yet universal, though it approached universality more closely than previous hypotheses. Hooke also did not provide accompanying evidence or mathematical demonstration. On these two aspects, Hooke stated in 1674: "Now what these several degrees [of gravitational attraction] are I have not yet experimentally verified" (indicating that he did not yet know what law the gravitation might follow); and as to his whole proposal: "This I only hint at present", "having my self many other things in hand which I would first compleat, and therefore cannot so well attend it" (i.e. "prosecuting this Inquiry").
In November 1679, Hooke initiated a remarkable exchange of letters with Newton (of which the full text is now published). Hooke's ostensible purpose was to tell Newton that Hooke had been appointed to manage the Royal Society's correspondence. Hooke therefore wanted to hear from members about their researches, or their views about the researches of others; and as if to whet Newton's interest, he asked what Newton thought about various matters, giving a whole list, mentioning "compounding the celestial motions of the planetts of a direct motion by the tangent and an attractive motion towards the central body", and "my hypothesis of the lawes or causes of springinesse", and then a new hypothesis from Paris about planetary motions (which Hooke described at length), and then efforts to carry out or improve national surveys, the difference of latitude between London and Cambridge, and other items. Newton's reply offered "a fansy of my own" about a terrestrial experiment (not a proposal about celestial motions) which might detect the Earth's motion, by the use of a body first suspended in air and then dropped to let it fall. The main point was to indicate how Newton thought the falling body could experimentally reveal the Earth's motion by its direction of deviation from the vertical, but he went on hypothetically to consider how its motion could continue if the solid Earth had not been in the way (on a spiral path to the centre). Hooke disagreed with Newton's idea of how the body would continue to move. A short further correspondence developed, and towards the end of it Hooke, writing on 6 January 1679|80 to Newton, communicated his "supposition ... that the Attraction always is in a duplicate proportion to the Distance from the Center Reciprocall, and Consequently that the Velocity will be in a subduplicate proportion to the Attraction and Consequently as Kepler Supposes Reciprocall to the Distance." (Hooke's inference about the velocity was actually incorrect.)
In 1686, when the first book of
NewtonSir Isaac Newton FRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is perceived and considered by a substantial number of scholars and the general public as one of the most influential men in history...
's '
PrincipiaThe Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Latin for "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy", often Principia or Principia Mathematica for short, is a work in three books by Isaac Newton, first published on 5 July 1687. Newton also published two further editions, the second in 1713,...
' was presented to the
Royal SocietyThe Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, or even the Royal, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is considered by most to be the oldest such society still in existence...
, Hooke claimed that Newton had had from him the "notion" of "the rule of the decrease of Gravity, being reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the Center". At the same time (according to
Edmond HalleyEdmond Halley FRS was an English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, and physicist, who is best known for computing the orbit of Halley's comet, which is named for him.- Biography and career :...
's contemporary report) Hooke agreed that "the Demonstration of the Curves generated therby" was wholly Newton's.
A recent assessment about the early history of the inverse square law is that "by the late 1660s," the assumption of an "inverse proportion between gravity and the square of distance was rather common and had been advanced by a number of different people for different reasons". Newton himself had shown in the 1660s that for planetary motion under a circular assumption, force in the radial direction had an inverse-square relation with distance from the center. Newton, faced in May 1686 with Hooke's claim on the inverse square law, denied that Hooke was to be credited as author of the idea, giving reasons including the citation of prior work by others before Hooke. Newton also firmly claimed that even if it had happened that he had first heard of the the inverse square proportion from Hooke, which it had not, he would still have some rights to it in view of his mathematical developments and demonstrations, which enabled observations to be relied on as evidence of its accuracy, while Hooke, without mathematical demonstrations and evidence in favour of the supposition, could only guess (according to Newton) that it was approximately valid "at great distances from the center".
On the other hand, Newton did accept and acknowledge, in all editions of the 'Principia', that Hooke (but not exclusively Hooke) had separately appreciated the inverse square law in the solar system. Newton acknowledged Wren, Hooke and Halley in this connection in the Scholium to Proposition 4 in Book 1. Newton also acknowledged to Halley that his correspondence with Hooke in 1679-80 had reawakened his dormant interest in astronomical matters, but that did not mean, according to Newton, that Hooke had told Newton anything new or original: "yet am I not beholden to him for any light into that business but only for the diversion he gave me from my other studies to think on these things & for his dogmaticalness in writing as if he had found the motion in the Ellipsis, which inclined me to try it ...".)
One of the contrasts between the two men was that Newton was primarily a pioneer in mathematical analysis and its applications as well as optical experimentation, while Hooke was a creative experimenter of such great range, that it is not surprising to find that he left some of his ideas, such as those about gravitation, undeveloped. This in turn makes it understandable how in 1759, decades after the deaths of both Newton and Hooke, Alexis Clairaut, mathematical astronomer eminent in his own right in the field of gravitational studies, made his assessment after reviewing what Hooke had published on gravitation. "One must not think that this idea ... of Hooke diminishes Newton's glory", Clairaut wrote; "The example of Hooke" serves "to show what a distance there is between a truth that is glimpsed and a truth that is demonstrated".
Microscopy
In 1665 Hooke published
MicrographiaMicrographia is a historical book by Robert Hooke, detailing the then twenty-eight year-old Hooke's observations through various lenses. Published in September 1665, it was an immediate best-seller.-Observations:...
, a book describing his
microscopicA microscope is an instrument to see objects too tiny for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.-History:An early microscope was made in 1590 in Middelburg, The...
and
telescopicA telescope is an instrument designed for the observation of remote objects by the collection of electromagnetic radiation. The first known practically functioning telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century...
observations, and some original work in
biologyBiology is the natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy...
. Hooke coined the term
cellThe cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos...
for describing biological organisms, the term being suggested by the resemblance of plant cells to
monks'A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, whilst always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
cells. The hand-crafted, leather and gold-tooled microscope he used to make the observations for
Micrographia, originally constructed by Christopher White in London, is on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, DC.
Micrographia also contains Hooke's, or perhaps Boyle and Hooke's, ideas on combustion. Hooke's experiments led him to conclude that combustion involves a substance that is mixed with air, a statement with which modern scientists would agree, but that was not widely understood, if at all, in the seventeenth century. Hooke went on to conclude that respiration also involves a specific component of the air. Partington even goes so far as to claim that if "Hooke had continued his experiments on combustion it is probable that he would have discovered
oxygenOxygen Oxygen Oxygen (acid, literally "sharp", from the taste of acids) and -γενής (-genēs) (producer, literally begetter) is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O...
".
Astronomy
One of the more-challenging problems tackled by Hooke was the measurement of the distance to a star (other than the Sun). The star chosen was
Gamma DraconisGamma Draconis is a star in the constellation Draco. It has the traditional name Eltanin ....
and the method to be used was
parallaxParallax is an apparent displacement or difference of orientation of an object viewed along two different lines of sight, and is measured by the angle or semi-angle of inclination between those two lines...
determination. After several months of observing, in 1669, Hooke believed that the desired result had been achieved. It is now known that Hooke's equipment was far too imprecise to allow the measurement to succeed. Gamma Draconis was the same star
William BradleyWilliam Bradley may refer to:* Will Bradley, American musician* Will H. Bradley, , American illustrator and artist* William Bradley , English football player...
used in 1725 in discovering the
aberration of lightThe aberration of light is an astronomical phenomenon which produces an apparent motion of celestial objects about their real locations...
.
Hooke's activities in astronomy extended beyond the study of stellar distance. His
Micrographia contains illustrations of the
PleiadesIn astronomy, the Pleiades, or seven sisters, are an open star cluster containing relatively young hot blue stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky...
star cluster as well as of lunar craters. He performed experiments to study how such craters might have formed. Hooke also was an early observer of the
rings of SaturnThe rings of Saturn are the most extensive planetary ring system of any planet in the Solar System. They consist of countless small particles, ranging in size from micrometres to metres, that form clumps that in turn orbit about Saturn...
, and discovered one of the first double-star systems,
Gamma ArietisGamma Arietis is a triple star system, 204 light years distant, in constellation Aries. It has the traditional name Mesarthim, of obscure origin, and has been called "the First Star in Aries" as having been at one time the nearest visible star to the equinoctial point.The system includes a binary...
, in 1664.
Hooke the architect
Hooke achieved fame in his day as Surveyor to the City of London and chief assistant of
Christopher WrenSir Christopher Wren was one of the best known and highest acclaimed English architects in history,...
. Hooke helped Wren rebuild London after the
Great FireThe Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...
in 1666, and also worked on designing London's
Monument to the fireThe Monument to the Great Fire of London, more commonly known as The Monument, is a 202 ft tall stone Roman Doric column in the City of London, England near to the northern end of London Bridge. It is located at the junction of Monument Street and Fish Street Hill, 202 ft from where the Great...
, the Royal Greenwich Observatory,
Montagu House in BloomsburyMontagu House was a late 17th century mansion in Great Russell Street in the Bloomsbury district of London, which became the first home of the British Museum....
, and the infamous
Bethlem Royal HospitalThe Bethlem Royal Hospital of London is a psychiatric hospital in Beckenham, south east London. Although no longer in its original location and buildings, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in the mentally ill. It has been variously known as St...
(which became known as 'Bedlam'). Other buildings designed by Hooke include The
Royal College of PhysiciansThe Royal College of Physicians of London was the first medical institution in England to receive a Royal Charter. It was founded in 1518 and is one of the most active of all medical professional organisations...
(1679),
Ragley HallRagley Hall is located south of Alcester, Warwickshire, eight miles west of Stratford-upon-Avon. It is the family home of the Marchioness and Marquess of Hertford, and is one of the great houses of England.-The present day:...
in
WarwickshireWarwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton in the far north of the county. The shape of the administrative area Warwickshire differs considerably from that of the historic county...
, and the parish church at
WillenWillen is a district of Milton Keynes, England and is also one of the ancient villages of Buckinghamshire to have been included in the designated area of the New City in1967...
in Milton Keynes,
BuckinghamshireAlthough the name Buckinghamshire is Anglo Saxon in origin meaning The district of Bucca's home the name has only been recorded since about the 12th century. The historic county itself has been in existence since it was a subdivision of the kingdom of Wessex in the 10th century...
. Hooke's collaboration with
Christopher WrenSir Christopher Wren was one of the best known and highest acclaimed English architects in history,...
also included
St Paul's CathedralSt Paul's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral on Ludgate Hill in the City of London and the seat of the Bishop of London. The present building dates from the 17th century and is generally reckoned to be London's fifth St Paul's Cathedral, not counting every major medieval reconstruction as a new...
, whose dome uses a method of construction conceived by Hooke.
In the reconstruction after the Great Fire, Hooke proposed redesigning London's streets on a grid pattern with wide boulevards and arteries, a pattern subsequently used in the
renovation of ParisThe Haussmann Renovations, or Haussmannisation of Paris, was a work commissioned by Napoléon III and led by the Seine prefect, Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann between 1852 and 1870, though work continued well after the Second Empire's demise in 1870....
, Liverpool, and many American cities. This proposal was thwarted by arguments over property rights, as property owners were surreptitiously shifting their boundaries. Hooke was in demand to settle many of these disputes, due to his competence as a surveyor and his tact as an arbitrator.
For an extensive study of Hooke's architectural work, see the book by Cooper.
Likenesses
No authenticated portrait of Robert Hooke exists, a situation sometimes attributed to the heated conflicts between Hooke and
Isaac NewtonSir Isaac Newton FRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian who is perceived and considered by a substantial number of scholars and the general public as one of the most influential men in history...
. In Hooke's time, the Royal Society met at Gresham College, but within a few months of Hooke's death Newton became the Society's president and plans were laid for a new meeting place. When the move to new quarters finally was made a few years later, in 1710, Hooke's Royal Society portrait went missing, and has yet to be found.
TimeTime is a component of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify the motions of objects...
magazine published a portrait, supposedly of Hooke, in its 3 July 1939 issue. However, when the source was traced by
Ashley MontaguMontague Francis Ashley Montagu , was a British-American anthropologist and humanist who popularized issues such as race and gender and their relation to politics and development. He was the rapporteur, in 1950, of the UNESCO statement The Race Question...
, it was found to lack a verifiable connection to Hooke. Moreover, Montagu found that contemporary written descriptions of Hooke's appearance agreed with one another, but that neither matched Times alleged picture of him.
In 2003, historian
Lisa JardineLisa Anne Jardine CBE , née Lisa Anne Bronowski, is a British historian of the early modern period. She is professor of Renaissance Studies and Director of the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary, University of London, and is Chair of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority...
claimed that a recently-discovered portrait was of Hooke, but this claim was disproved by William Jensen of the
University of CincinnatiThe University of Cincinnati is a coeducational public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, part of the University System of Ohio. The 2007 rankings from The Center at Arizona State University place the University of Cincinnati as a "Public University Ranking in the Top 25 among Publics," tied...
. The portrait identified by Jardine, in fact, depicts the Flemish scholar
Jan Baptist van HelmontJan Baptist van Helmont was an early modern period Flemish chemist, physiologist, and physician. He worked during the years just after Paracelsus and iatrochemistry, and is sometimes considered to be "the founder of pneumatic chemistry"...
.
Other possible likenesses of Hooke include the following:
- A seal used by Hooke displays an unusual profile portrait of a man's head, which some have argued portrays Hooke.
- The engraved frontispiece to the 1728 edition of Chambers' Cyclopedia
Ephraim Chambers , was an English writer and encyclopedist, who is primarily known for producing the Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences. -Early life:...
shows a drawing of a bust of Robert Hooke. The extent to which the drawing is based on an actual work of art is unknown.
- A memorial window existed at St Helen's Bishopsgate
St Helen's Bishopsgate is a large conservative evangelical Anglican church, in Lime Street ward, in the City of London, close to the Lloyd's building and the 'Gherkin'.-History:...
in London, but it was a formulaic rendering, not a likeness. The window was destroyed in the 1993 Bishopsgate bombingThe Bishopsgate bombing occurred on 24 April 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a truck bomb in London's financial district in Bishopsgate, City of London, England. One person was killed in the explosion and 44 injured, and damage initially estimated at £1 billion was caused...
.
In 2003 history painter Rita Greer embarked on a self-funded project to memorialize Hooke. The Rita Greer Robert Hooke project aimed to produce credible images of him, both painted and drawn, that fitted his contemporary descriptions drawn from two sources: John Aubrey and Richard Waller. Greer's images of Hooke, his life and work have been used for TV programmes in UK and USA, in books, magazines and for PR.
Commemorations
- 3514 Hooke
3514 Hooke is a Outer Main-belt Asteroid discovered on October 26, 1971 by L. Kohoutek at Bergedorf.- External links :*...
, an asteroid (1971 UJ)
- Craters
Hooke, as a crater, may refer to:* Hooke * Hooke...
on the MoonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
and on MarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance, due to iron oxide prevalent on its surface....
are named in his honour.
- Robert Hooke Science center St. John Smith Square Westminster School London
- The Hooke Medal
- New memorials to Robert Hooke 2005 - 2009
Robert Hooke, a major figure of seventeenth century England, died essentially unmemorialized. With no immediate family, and with personal disputes with many members of the Royal Society, no memorials were erected in his honor on the occasion of his death...
See also
- Anchor escapement
In horology, the recoil or anchor escapement is a type of escapement used in pendulum clocks. An escapement is the mechanism in a mechanical clock that maintains the swing of the pendulum and advances the clock's wheels at each swing...
- Catenary
In physics and geometry, the catenary is the theoretical shape a hanging chain or cable will assume when supported at its ends and acted on only by its own weight. Its surface of revolution, the catenoid, is a minimal surface and will be the shape of a soap film bounded by two circles...
- Elasticity (physics)
In physics, elasticity is the physical property of a material when it returns to its original shape after the stress under which it deforms is removed. The relative amount of deformation is called the strain.- Modelling elasticity :...
- Great red spot
- Hooke's atom
Hooke's atom, also known as harmonium, refers to an artificial helium-like atom where the Coulombic electron-nucleus interaction potential isreplaced by a harmonic potential...
- List of astronomical instrument makers
- Mechanics
Mechanics is the branch of physics concerned with the behaviour of physical bodies when subjected to forces or displacements, and the subsequent effect of the bodies on their environment....
- Optical microscope
The optical microscope, often referred to as the "light microscope", is a type of microscope which uses visible light and a system of lenses to magnify images of small samples. Optical microscopes are the oldest and simplest of the microscopes...
- Reticle (crosshair)
- Sash window
A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels or "sashes" that form a frame to hold panes of glass which are often separated from other panes by narrow muntin bars...
- Shadowgraph
Shadowgraph is an optical method that reveals non-uniformities in transparent media like air, water, or glass. It is related to, but simpler than, the schlieren and schlieren photography methods that perform a similar function...
- The Boyle-Hooke plaque in Oxford
Oxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
- Universal joint
A universal joint, U joint, Cardan joint, Hardy-Spicer joint, or Hooke's joint is a joint in a rigid rod that allows the rod to 'bend' in any direction, and is commonly used in shafts that transmit rotary motion...
Further reading
(privately printed, 1923-67)
External links
- UCMP - Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
- The Monument - Dr. Robert Hooke
- Robert Hooke, hosted by Westminster School
- Micrographia
Micrographia, at Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain...
(downloadable collections, including searchable ASCII text and book as complete html document with images)
- Hooke's Micrographia, at Linda Hall Library
A timeline of Hooke's life
England's Leonardo, a lecture on Robert Hooke
An engraved bust of Robert Hooke
Lost manuscript of Robert Hooke discovered – from The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
Manuscript bought for The Royal Society – from The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
A Panoramic Virtual Tour of Hooke's Church at Willen – by Peter Loud
Exploring our archives, a blog by researchers at the Royal Society exploring Hooke's lost manuscript - A 60-minute presentation by Prof. Michael Cooper, with links to slides, audio, video, and a transcript, with references
Moses Pitt, Robert Hooke and the English Atlas