64 Facts About Robert Hooke

Robert Hooke FRS was an English polymath active as a scientist, natural philosopher and architect, who is credited to be one of the first two scientists to discover microorganisms in 1665 using a compound microscope that he built himself, the other scientist being Antoni van Leeuwenhoek in 1674.

In 1673, Robert Hooke built the earliest Gregorian telescope, and then he observed the rotations of the planets Mars and Jupiter.

In geology and paleontology, Robert Hooke originated the theory of a terraqueous globe, disputed the literally Biblical view of the Earth's age, hypothesised the extinction of species, and argued that fossils atop hills and mountains had become elevated by geological processes.

Robert Hooke's pioneering work in land surveying and in mapmaking aided development of the first modern plan-form map, although his grid-system plan for London was rejected in favour of rebuilding along existing routes.

Robert Hooke was born in 1635 in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight to Cecily Gyles and John Hooke, an Anglican priest, the curate of Freshwater's Church of All Saints.

Robert Hooke was the youngest, by seven years, of four siblings, two boys and two girls.

The young Robert Hooke was fascinated by observation, mechanical works, and drawing.

Robert Hooke dismantled a brass clock and built a wooden replica that reportedly worked "well enough".

Robert Hooke made his own drawing materials from coal, chalk, and ruddle.

On his father's death in 1648, Robert Hooke inherited 40 pounds.

Robert Hooke took this to London with the aim of beginning an apprenticeship, and studied briefly with Samuel Cowper and Peter Lely, but was persuaded instead to enter Westminster School by its headmaster Dr Richard Busby.

Robert Hooke quickly mastered Latin and Greek, mastered Euclid's Elements, learned to play the organ, and began his lifelong study of mechanics.

In 1653, Robert Hooke secured a chorister's place at Christ Church, Oxford.

Robert Hooke was employed as a "chemical assistant" to Dr Thomas Willis, for whom Hooke developed a great admiration.

In 1659, Robert Hooke described some elements of a method of heavier-than-air flight to Wilkins, but concluded that human muscles were insufficient to the task.

Robert Hooke himself characterised his Oxford days as the foundation of his lifelong passion for science, and the friends he made there were of paramount importance to him throughout his career, particularly Christopher Wren.

Regardless, it is clear that Robert Hooke was a valued assistant to Boyle and the two retained a mutual high regard.

The book and its inscription in Robert Hooke's hand are a testament to the lasting influence of Wilkins and his circle on the young Robert Hooke.

Robert Hooke 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 blood.

In 1663 and 1664, Robert Hooke made his microscopic observations, subsequently collated in Micrographia in 1665.

Jenkins points out a number of errors in Robison's article, and questions whether the correspondent might in fact have been Newton, whom Robert Hooke is known to have corresponded with, the name being misread as Newcomen.

For instance, in a book published in 2011 it is said that in a letter dated 1703 Robert Hooke did suggest that Newcomen use condensing steam to drive the piston.

Yet allegedly, Robert Hooke was proud, and often annoyed by intellectual competitors.

Robert Hooke contended that Oldenburg had leaked details of Robert Hooke's watch escapement.

Some evidence suggests that Robert Hooke subsequently assumed credit for some of these ideas.

Robert Hooke was granted a large number of patents for inventions and refinements in the fields of elasticity, optics, and barometry.

The Royal Society's Robert Hooke papers, rediscovered in 2006, may open up a modern reassessment.

Robert Hooke often met Christopher Wren, with whom he shared many interests, and had a lasting friendship with John Aubrey.

Robert Hooke took tea on many occasions with his lab assistant, Harry Hunt.

Under the strain of an enormous workload, Robert Hooke suffered from headaches, dizziness and bouts of insomnia.

Robert Hooke regularly used sal ammoniac, purges and opiates, which appear to have had an increasing impact on his physical and mental health over time.

Robert Hooke was buried at St Helen's Bishopsgate, but the precise location of his grave is unknown.

In 1660, Robert Hooke discovered the law of elasticity which bears his name and which describes the linear variation of tension with extension in an elastic spring.

Robert Hooke first announced his law of elasticity as an anagram.

Robert Hooke became Curator of Experiments in 1662 to the newly founded Royal Society, and took responsibility for experiments performed at its weekly meetings.

In 1664 Robert Hooke was appointed Professor of Geometry at Gresham College in London and Cutlerian Lecturer in Mechanics.

Robert Hooke ran a bow along the edge of a glass plate covered with flour, and saw the nodal patterns emerge.

Robert 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".

Robert Hooke clearly postulated mutual attractions between the Sun and planets, in a way that increased with nearness to the attracting body.

Robert Hooke's gravitation was not yet universal, though it approached universality more closely than previous hypotheses.

Robert Hooke disagreed with Newton's idea of how the body would continue to move.

In 1686, when the first book of Newton's Principia was presented to the Royal Society, Robert Hooke claimed that he had given Newton the "notion" of "the rule of the decrease of Gravity, being reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the Center".

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 Robert 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.

Robert Hooke made tremendously important contributions to the science of timekeeping, being intimately involved in the advances of his time; the introduction of the pendulum as a better regulator for clocks, the balance spring to improve the timekeeping of watches, and the proposal that a precise timekeeper could be used to find the longitude at sea.

In 1655, according to his autobiographical notes, Robert Hooke began to acquaint himself with astronomy, through the good offices of John Ward.

Robert Hooke applied himself to the improvement of the pendulum and in 1657 or 1658, he began to improve on pendulum mechanisms, studying the work of Giovanni Riccioli, and going on to study both gravitation and the mechanics of timekeeping.

Robert Hooke recorded that he conceived of a way to determine longitude, and with the help of Boyle and others he attempted to patent it.

Robert Hooke coined the term cell, suggesting plant structure's resemblance to honeycomb cells.

Robert 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 understood widely, if at all, in the seventeenth century.

Robert Hooke went on to conclude that respiration involves a specific component of the air.

Partington even goes so far as to claim that if "Robert Hooke had continued his experiments on combustion it is probable that he would have discovered oxygen".

Robert Hooke believed that such fossils provided reliable clues to the past history of life on Earth, and, despite the objections of contemporary naturalists like John Ray who found the concept of extinction theologically unacceptable, that in some cases they might represent species that had become extinct through some geological disaster.

One of the more-challenging problems tackled by Robert Hooke was the measurement of the distance to a star.

Robert Hooke's Micrographia contains illustrations of the Pleiades star cluster as well as of lunar craters.

Robert Hooke performed experiments to study how such craters might have formed.

Robert Hooke was an early observer of the rings of Saturn, and discovered one of the first observed double-star systems, Gamma Arietis, in 1664.

Robert Hooke was Surveyor to the City of London and chief assistant to Christopher Wren, in which capacity he helped Wren rebuild London after the Great Fire in 1666, and worked on the design of London's Monument to the fire, the Royal Greenwich Observatory, Montagu House in Bloomsbury, and the Bethlem Royal Hospital.

Robert Hooke participated in the design of the Pepys Library, which held the manuscripts of Samuel Pepys' diaries, the most frequently cited eyewitness account of the Great Fire of London.

Robert Hooke was in demand to settle many of these disputes, due to his competence as a surveyor and his tact as an arbitrator.

Robert Hooke is but of midling stature, something crooked, pale faced, and his face but little below, but his head is lardge, his eie full and popping, and not quick; a grey eie.

Robert Hooke is and ever was temperate and moderate in dyet, etc.

Robert Hooke was always very pale and lean, and laterly nothing but Skin and Bone, with a Meagre Aspect, his Eyes grey and full, with a sharp ingenious Look whilst younger; his nose but thin, of a moderate height and length; his Mouth meanly wide, and upper lip thin; his Chin sharp, and Forehead large; his Head of a middle size.

Robert Hooke wore his own Hair of a dark Brown colour, very long and hanging neglected over his Face uncut and lank.

Robert Hooke's project aimed to produce credible images of him, both painted and drawn, that she believes fit the descriptions of him by his contemporaries John Aubrey and Richard Waller.