Robert Hooke
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
Robert Hooke is unknown to most people, and most who do know him think only of Hooke's Law (which states that the extension of an elastic body under strain is proportional to the load applied). This is a shame because Hooke was an intersting (if difficult) character and contributed hugely to the advancement of science.
OK, here's a brief quiz for you. Who designed The Monument in London? Wren? No, Hooke.
How about the dome of St Paul's Cathedral? Yes, Hooke again.
So, who invented the anchor escapement, used in virtually all clockwork watches and clocks? Yes, Hooke again.
The "Newtonian" telescope? Hooke, demonstrated to the Royal Society a decade before Newton waas supposed to have invented it. Gravitation - Hooke laid the groundwork, though his mathematical ability was not up to Newton's standard so Newton finished the job. Microscopy. Hooke turned a hobby into a science and published Micrographica, for generations the definitve work on the subject.
Hooke had so many interests (and patents!) that in one scholarly work on early science he takes up fve full volumes (Newton, for comparison, takes three).
