Hooke and his contemporaries
Most who have studied some science will have come across Hooke's Law, that the extension of a spring is proportional to the applied force, but few will know of his theory of combustion or that his Micrographia was the first book on microscopy; that his astronomical observations were some of the best seen at the time and that there is a Hooke crater on the moon, named in his honour; that he contributed to knowledge of respiration, insect flight and the properties of gases; that his work on gravitation preceded Newton's; that he invented the universal joint and the anchor escapement in clocks and numerous other mechanical devices; and that he was an architect of distinction and a Surveyor for the City of London after the Great Fire. Everyone knows the names of Newton and Wren, but Hooke was as distinguished and deserves similar recognition. That he lacks such recognition stems from a mixture of temperament and bad luck.
'Everyone knows the names of Newton and Wren, but Hooke was as distinguished and deserves similar recognition.'
In 1648 Hooke entered Westminster School under Dr Richard Busby, going on to Christ Church Oxford in 1653. It was here that he met some of those who would be lifelong companions in science and in the Royal Society. Many have become legendary: among his contemporaries were Robert Boyle, aristocrat and experimentalist; the mathematician John Wilkins; William Petty, economist and inventor; the astronomers Jeremiah Horrocks of Liverpool, John Flamsteed and Edmond Halley (the first two Astronomers Royal) and Christopher Wren, who was Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford (1661) before he became more famous as an architect. Add to this Newton, the French astronomer Cassini, Christiaan Huygens, the patronage of King Charles II - and the legacy of Kepler, Galileo and Tycho Brahe, all of who had died in the first half of the 17th century - and Hooke's scientific environment can be seen to be rich indeed.
Published: 2001-04-01
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