Robert Hooke: 17th-Century Scientist

• Robert Hooke was a British 17th-century scientist.
• Hooke excelled in various roles, including physicist, biologist, inventor, and architect.
• Hooke discovered the law of elasticity.
• Hooke invented a new microscope.
• Hooke helped to redesign London after the Great Fire.
• Hooke published the first popular science book.
• Robert Hooke was born on the Isle of Wight in 1635.
• Hooke was often sick as a child and had sporadic formal education.
• Hooke engaged in varied pursuits, including painting, model-making, and music.
• He took an interest in mechanical devices and dismantled a brass clock, then built a working replica out of wood.
• In 1648, Hooke's father died, and with his inheritance, Hooke funded his own education at Westminster School.
• At age 18, he gained a place at Oxford University.
• Hooke received an unorthodox and eclectic formative education.
• This education formed a springboard that would launch his career as a 17th-century polymath.
• No contemporary portraits of Hooke survive, but several artists have made posthumous ones.
• Due to a lack of funds at Oxford, Hooke took on part-time work.
• Hooke worked as an assistant to the physician and chemist Thomas Willis, then later to natural philosopher Robert Boyle.
• Hooke's aptitude for science began to flourish at this time.

Milestones

• 1653: Earned place on a choral scholarship at Christ Church College, Oxford University.
• 1655: Worked as an assistant to Robert Boyle and discovered a love of science; joined an elite academic circle.
• 1660: Discovered the law of elasticity and applied his research into springs to improve clockmaking.
• 1665: Used the improved microscope for scientific investigation and published Micrographia, a very popular book.
• 1666: Aided Christopher Wren in the restoration of the City of London with his skills in design and artistry.
• Hooke discovered the law of elasticity: The extension and compression of a spring is proportional to the force applied to it.
• Hooke first published his law as an anagram, which unscrambled to read "as the extension, so the force" in Latin.