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. The Society at Gresham had by this time petitioned King Charles II to recognise it and to make a royal grant of incorporation.
The Society already had in mind appointing Hooke to this position and indeed on 5 November he was given the position.
In many ways it did not look a marvellous deal for he was required to demonstrate three or four experiments at every meeting of the Society , something that was quite unrealistic and it is doubtful that anyone other than Hooke could have contemplated being able to provide.
Although it was hoped that the Society would eventually be able to provide payment to Hooke, he was required to undertake the work without any recompense until the Society was in a position to do so. In fact Hooke reacted to the impossible task set him by producing a wealth of original ideas over the following 15 years. It would be fair to say that it was through Hooke's flood of ideas that the Society prospered, but equally the demands brought out Hooke's genius to the full.
Although the demands meant that he never had time to develop his ideas over time as one would expect a leading scientist to do, on the other hand it seemed to suit his nature to have his mind jump for one half thought out idea to the next. He was elected to the Royal Society on 3 June and, although he was still receiving no payment, at least the Society was prepared to allow him to become a Fellow without paying the annual fees.
This did not provide the financial security that Hooke might have hoped for, since the Society often did not have sufficient funds to pay him as Curator of Experiments and when he was not paid for his duties as Cutlerian Lecturer in the Mechanical Arts he was forced to go to court to get payment.
He did however secure another appointment, namely that of Professor of Geometry at Gresham College, London, being appointed there in The position gave him rooms at the College and required him to give one lecture each week in term time. The lecture had to be given in Latin and subsequently repeated in English.
He was required to be unmarried but was permitted a housekeeper. The year was the one when Hooke first achieved worldwide scientific fame. His book Micrographia , published that year, contained beautiful pictures of objects Hooke had studied through a microscope he had made himself.
The book also contains a number of fundamental biological discoveries. Pepys wrote in his diary:- Before I went to bed I sat up till two o'clock in my chamber reading Mr Hooke's Microscopical Observations, the most ingenious book that ever I read in my life.
Westfall writes [ 1 ] :- Micrographia remains one of the masterpieces of seventeenth century science. Above all, the book suggested what the microscope could do for biological science. Hooke invented the conical pendulum and was the first person to build a Gregorian reflecting telescope. He made important astronomical observations including the fact that Jupiter revolves on its axis which he discovered from observing spots.
He then invented a helioscope to attempt to measure the rotation of the sun using sunspots. He made drawings of Mars which were later used to determine its period of rotation. He observed several comets and asked a number of important questions about them, including why the tail points away from the sun, and how if the comet is burning it could burn for so long and burn in a place where there is no air. In he proposed that gravity could be measured using a pendulum. He was a very competent architect and was chief assistant to Wren in his project to rebuild London after the Great Fire of Westfall writes [ 1 ] :- Wren and Hooke dominated and guided the work, and cemented a friendship that lasted throughout their lives.
To Hooke the position of surveyor was a financial boon, more than compensating for the uncertainty of his other income. When Newton produced his theory of light and colour in , Hooke claimed that what was correct in Newton 's theory was stolen from his own ideas about light of and what was original was wrong. This marked the beginning of severe arguments between the two. In Hooke attempted to prove that the Earth moves in an ellipse round the Sun and six years later proposed that inverse square law of gravitation to explain planetary motions.
Hooke wrote to Newton in asking for his opinion Hooke, however, seemed unable to give a mathematical proof of his conjectures or perhaps unwilling to devote his time to this type of pursuit. However he claimed priority over the inverse square law and this led to a bitter dispute with Newton who, as a consequence, removed all references to Hooke from the Principia.
His other observations and discoveries include:. Hooke was a brilliant scientist, a pious Christian, and a difficult and impatient man. What kept him from true success was a lack of interest in mathematics. Many of his ideas inspired and were completed by others in and outside of the Royal Society, such as the Dutch pioneer microbiologist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek — , navigator and geographer William Dampier — , geologist Niels Stenson better known as Steno, — , and Hooke's personal nemesis, Isaac Newton — When the Royal Society published Newton's "Principia" in , Hooke accused him of plagiarism, a situation so profoundly affecting Newton that he put off publishing "Optics" until after Hooke was dead.
Hooke kept a diary in which he discussed his infirmities, which were many, but although it doesn't have literary merit like Samuel Pepys', it also describes many details of daily life in London after the Great Fire. He died, suffering from scurvy and other unnamed and unknown illnesses, on March 3, He neither married nor had children. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data.
Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Initially a sickly child, Hooke grew to be a quick learner who was interested in painting and adept at making mechanical toys and models.
In , Hooke enrolled at Oxford's Christ Church College, where he supplemented his meager funds by working as an assistant to the scientist Robert Boyle. While studying subjects ranging from astronomy to chemistry, Hooke also made influential friends, such as future architect Christopher Wren. Hooke was appointed curator of experiments for the newly formed Royal Society of London in , a position he obtained with Boyle's support.
Hooke became a fellow of the society in Unlike many of the gentleman scientists he interacted with, Hooke required an income. In , he accepted a position as professor of geometry at Gresham College in London. After the "Great Fire" destroyed much of London in , Hooke became a city surveyor. A true polymath, the topics Hooke covered during his career include comets, the motion of light, the rotation of Jupiter, gravity, human memory and the properties of air. In all of his studies and demonstrations, he adhered to the scientific method of experimentation and observation.
In , Hooke discovered a physical law that would later be named after him. Hooke's law states that the force needed to extend or compress a spring is proportional to the distance it is stretched. In , Hooke was given the role of Curator of Experiments for the Royal Society , which meant he devised the experiments performed in the society's weekly meetings, according to RobertHooke.
Today, this is the oldest independent scientific organization, and Hooke's broad scientific interests helped set the society's trajectory during its early years. In , he invented or improved the five main meteorological instruments: the barometer, thermometer, hydroscope, rain gauge and wind gauge, according to ThoughtCo. This article is brought to you by How It Works. How It Works is the action-packed magazine that's bursting with exciting information about the latest advances in science and technology, featuring everything you need to know about how the world around you — and the universe — works.
The barometer invented by Hooke was the wheel barometer, which was used to measure the air's atmospheric pressure. This barometer consisted of a curved tube, filled with mercury, and a ball that floated on top. The floating ball was attached to a pointer. The tube, filled with mercury, sat upside down on a small container of mercury. When the air pressure increased, the increased weight pushing down on the mercury forced more mercury into the tube and caused the ball to move upward.
This changed the measurement selected by the pointer, according to ThoughtCo. Hooke went on to develop his own versions of wind and rain gauges.
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