He never married, but diary entries reveal he did have affections for others. Tragically, Hooke died intestate in with 9, pounds to his name. His health had severely deteriorated during the last 7 years of his life, and he was plagued with an illustrious career that was greatly overshadowed by his mortal enemy, Isaac Newton.
Even his gravesite remains a mystery. His remains were exhumed and reburied during the s in North London, but the precise location is unknown. If his remains are found, officials with City University in London say they will use the latest facial reconstruction technology to give Hooke a face, and with it, some of the recognition he has been denied.
Although Hooke did not make his own microscopes, he was heavily involved with the overall design and optical characteristics.
The Hooke microscope shared several common features with telescopes of the period: en eyecup to maintain the correct distance between the eye and eyepiece, separate draw tubes for focusing, and a ball and socket joint for inclining the body. When the draw tubes were fully closed the microscope measured 6 inches long. Although the craftsmanship and design of this microscope was excellent, it suffered from a poorly executed focusing mechanism that would tend to wear very quickly and unevenly.
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Sign In or Create an Account. Sign In. Advanced Search. Search Menu. Article Navigation. Close mobile search navigation Article Navigation. Volume Article Contents The Hooke Microscope. Davidson Michael W. Oxford Academic. Google Scholar. Cite Cite Michael W. Select Format Select format. Permissions Icon Permissions. Open in new tab Download slide. Endlessly fascinated by springs, Hooke noted that when an elastic body, such as a spring, undergoes stress, its shape is altered in proportion to the applied stress.
He was fascinated by mechanical toys and clocks, making many things from wood from a working clock to a model of a fully rigged ship with working guns. Waller, in the Preface to Hooke's Posthumous Works published in , dates his belief in mechanics, in particular his belief that nature was a complicated machine, from the time that he let his imagination and his talents run riot at about age ten.
From about the time Robert was ten his father became ill and this contributed to Robert being left to educate himself in the highly practical way that interested him. Not only did Robert show talents at science, but he also showed skills at drawing. There was a portrait painter, John Hoskyns, who was working at Freshwater at this time and Robert used to watch him at work. Soon he was imitating the way that Hoskyns used pen and chalk, and he was making copies of Hoskyns' portraits.
His talent was clear and after the death of his father in Robert's family decided that drawing was the best way that he might earn a living. Lely had studied at Haarlem in Holland and set himself up in London about five years before Hooke was sent to him.
Influenced by Van Dyck he became the most technically proficient painter in England and Hooke could have learnt much from such a leading expert. However, he soon decided that it would waste his money studying under Lely, and he made the decision that what he really needed was a school education. Hooke enrolled in Westminster School, boarding in the house of the headmaster Richard Busby. Indeed Hooke was fortunate to come under the influence of Busby who was an outstanding teacher who quickly realised that he had a quite remarkable pupil.
Hooke had mastered the first six books of Euclid's Elements by the end of his first week at school but Busby seemed to understand that formal learning was not going to be best for Hooke and so encouraged him to study by himself in his library [ 10 ] :- Hooke was fortunate in gaining the respect of Dr Busby and being left to follow his own pursuits of knowledge just as he had before attending Westminster School.
At Westminster Hooke learnt Latin and Greek but, although he enjoyed speaking Latin, unlike his contemporaries he never wrote in Latin. His rapidly gained understanding of geometry was soon applied to his real love of mechanics and he began to invent possible flying machines. Music was another of his interests and he learnt to play the organ. In , feeling that he had assimilated as much knowledge as Westminster School could offer, he entered Christ College, Oxford where he won a chorister's place.
He began to study at Oxford at a particularly significant time for Thomas Willis, Seth Ward, Robert Boyle , John Wilkins , John Wallis , Christopher Wren and William Petty were among those who regularly met as the "Oxford branch" of the "invisible college" or the "philosophical college" which had been set up in - 49 when some of the scientists meeting in London moved to Oxford.
In Oxford Hooke learnt astronomy from Seth Ward and impressed Wilkins with his knowledge of mechanics. Wilkins gave him a copy of his book Mathematical Magick, or the wonders that may be performed by mechanical geometry which he had published five years before Hooke arrived in Oxford.
This book encouraged Hooke to continue to try to invent a flying machine and he conducted experiments in the grounds of Wadham College with pulleys. For a while Hooke assisted Willis with his dissection experiments. He was involved with the top English scientists of the day, benefiting greatly by acquiring skills in a wide range of disciplines [ 1 ] Hooke never took a bachelor's degree [ but ] Oxford had given him more than a thousand degrees could match.
Boyle was looking for an assistant and Willis recommended Hooke to him. From he was employed by Boyle and his first project was to construct an air pump. The main area of Boyle 's interests were in chemistry but he had read of experiments conducted by von Guericke with the aid of an air pump and, knowing Hooke's skill with mechanical instruments, asked him if he could build one.
A better air pump than that used by von Guericke had been made by Greatorix but Hooke felt that he could improve on the design. Indeed he did so and Hooke designed and built what is essentially the modern air pump.
Hooke was never a person who did one thing at a time, indeed he seemed at his best when his mind was jumping from one idea to another. At the same time that he was working on the air pump he was also thinking about clocks and how they could be used in determining the longitude at sea.
Realising the weakness of the pendulum clock in keeping time on a ship which was pitching and tossing, he wondered about the Rather than the balance wheel being controlled by a pendulum which in turn operated through gravity, he reasoned that controlling the balance wheel with a spring would have huge advantages for a portable timekeeper that one might carry around or one which would have to continue to keep the correct time on a ship.
Beginning his experiments around he had made two significant steps by , namely the use of a balance controlled by a spiral spring and an improved escapement called the anchor escapement. In he discovered an instance of Hooke's law while working on designs for the balance springs of clocks.
However he only announced the general law of elasticity in his lecture Of Spring given in In fact was the year when a rather strange event happened regarding Hooke's spring controlled clocks. In that year he was backed by Wren , Moray and Brouncker in his design of a spring controlled clock and a patent was drawn up. It could have led to him making a fortune, but when he realised that the patent would allow anyone who improved on his design to receive the royalties, he refused to continue with the patent.
Political circumstances now determined the course of events. After Cromwell's death in his son took over but was ineffectual. Many of the scientists in Oxford had been appointed because of their Puritan sympathies and they now lost their positions and moved to London.
Monck, who had been appointed as governor in Scotland, marched an army on London and restored order in early Monck called for new elections to Parliament, knowing that the mood of the people would elect Royalists.
The improvement in the situation in London, in particular troops which had been stationed in Gresham College now left, allowed the scientists to begin meeting again in the College. On Wednesday 28 November a meeting in Gresham College constituted the Society for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning which they declared would promote experimental philosophy.
Hooke's first publication was a pamphlet on capillary action. On 10 April his paper was read to the Society in which he showed that the narrower the tube, the higher water rose in it. At a more theoretical level, Hooke also described gravity as the force that pulls celestial bodies together, relating in a letter to Newton a version of the inverse-square law of gravitational force.
The great fire of London in presented another opportunity for Hooke to shine. Unlike many contemporaries, he refused to profit dishonestly in the aftermath of the disaster by taking bribes as people worked to rebuild. As surveyor of the city , he collaborated with the renowned architect Christopher Wren to create a monument to the fire. It was in large part through his architectural work that Hooke made his fortune, though he never veered from the frugal habits he developed early in life.
Though unsuccessful, his idea was subsequently incorporated in cities such as Liverpool and Washington, D. Unfortunately, his sometimes rancorous disputes with the likes of Newton over scientific priority contributed to his comparative neglect by science historians , and today we lack any contemporary likeness of him.
Portsmouth Climate Festival — Portsmouth, Portsmouth. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. No contemporary portrait of Robert Hooke seems to have survived. This oil painting is based on descriptions during his lifetime.
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