Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke (July 18, 1635 - March 3, 1703) was one of the greatest experimental scientists of the seventeenth century, and hence one of the key figures in the scientific revolution.
Born in Freshwater, on the Isle of Wight, Hooke received his early education at Westminster School. In 1653, Hooke won a place at Oxford. There, he met Robert Boyle, and was employed as his assistant. In 1660, he discovered Hooke's law of elasticity, which describes the linear variation of tension with extension in an elastic spring. In 1662, Hooke was appointed Curator of Experiments to the newly founded Royal Society, and was responsible for experiments performed at its meetings. In 1665, he published a book entitled Micrographia, which contained a number of microscopic and telescopic observations, and some original biology. Indeed, the biological term cell is attributed to Hooke, which he coined because his observations of plant cells reminded him of monks' cells. Also in 1665, he was appointed Professor of Geometry at Gresham College.
Robert Hooke also achieved fame as the chief assistant of Christopher Wren helping to rebuild after the Great Fire of London in 1666. He worked on the Royal Greenwich Observatory, and the infamous Bethlehem Hospital, Bedlam.
He died in London. No surviving portrait of him is known, although one portrait of John Ray is claimed to be Robert Hooke by historian Lisa Jardine, and a seal used by Hooke displays a mans head that has been argued to be Hooke. Both claims are disputed, however.
Achievements
In addition to the book Micrographia and Hooke's Law, Hooke invented the anchor escapement and may also have invented the balance spring before Christiaan Huygens. An escapement is a device for regulating the rate of a watch or clock, and the anchor escapement was a major step in accurate watch design. The balance spring is also used to regulate the flow of energy from the mainspring. It coils and uncoils with a natural periodicity, allowing for fine adjustment of the period of ticks. Modern spring watches still use balance springs, and the most common escapement today is the double roller Swiss anchor escapement, which is a nineteenth-century modification of Hooke's design.
Hooke is sometimes credited with inventing the compound microscope, a design consisting of multiple lenses (usually three - an eyepiece, a field lens and an objective). While he did give much advice on new microscope designs to the instrument maker Christopher Cock, this attribution appears to be incorrect, since compound microscopes had already been assembled by Zacharias Janssen in 1590. However, Hooke's microscopes were able to achieve 30x magnification, which was far superior to any previous instruments.
His other significant achievements include the construction of the first Gregorian reflecting telescope, and the discovery of the first binary star. He is also credited with inventing the first practical universal joint, sometimes called the Hooke joint, although the Italian mathematician Girolamo Cardano had proposed the idea about a century earlier and may or may not have built one.
Hooke and Newton
There was considerable mutual dislike between Robert Hooke and Isaac Newton. It all started in 1672 when Hooke criticized Newton's presentation showing that prisms split white light rather than modifying it. Newton was furious that Hooke was unable to grasp his ground-breaking discovery, and threatened to leave the Royal Society. In 1684, Newton failed to recognize Hooke's contribution to his Principia.
External links
- Hooke Timeline (http://freespace.virgin.net/ric.martin/vectis/hookeweb/roberthooke.htm)
- http://www.roberthooke.org.uk (http://www.roberthooke.org.uk)
- The Face of Robert Hooke (http://freespace.virgin.net/iw.history/hooke/face.htm)
bg:Робърт Хук de:Robert Hooke es:Robert Hooke eo:Robert HOOKE fr:Robert Hooke it:Robert Hooke ms:Robert Hooke nl:Robert Hooke ja:ロバート・フック pl:Robert Hooke pt:Robert Hooke sl:Robert Hooke sv:Robert Hooke