Hooke, Robert 1635-1703
English experimental philosopher and architect

He was born in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, educated at Christ Church, Oxford, and worked as an assistant to John Wilkins on flying machines and Robert Boyle on the construction of his air-pump. In 1662 he was appointed the first curator of experiments at the newly founded Royal Society of London (secretary 1677-83), and in 1665 he became Professor of Physics at Gresham College, London. In that year he published his Micrographia, an impressive account of his microscopic investigations in botany, chemistry and other branches of science. One of the most brilliant and versatile scientists of his day, he was also an argumentative individual who became involved in a number of controversies, including several priority disputes with Isaac Newton. He anticipated the development of the steam engine, discovered the relationship between the stress and strain in elastic bodies known as 'Hooke's law', and formulated the simplest theory of the arch, the balance-spring of watches, and the anchorescapement of clocks. He also anticipated Newton's law of the inverse square in gravitation (1678), constructed the first Gregorian or reflecting telescope, with which he discovered the fifth star in Orion and inferred the rotation of Jupiter, and materially improved or invented the compound microscope, the quadrant, a marine barometer, and the universal joint. After the Great Fire of London (1666) he was appointed city surveyor, and designed the new Bethlehem Hospital (Moorfields) and Montague House.

Bibliography: Margaret Espinasse, Robert Hooke (1956)