July 18, 1635 in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, England.
Died
March 3, 1703 in London, England at age 67.
Claim to Fame
- Hooke's Law: relating the force pulling back on a spring is inversely proportional to the distance pulled from rest.
- Assisted Robert Boyle by constructing his air pump.
- Designed, improved or invented many scientific instruments used in the Seventeenth Century. First to replace pendulums in clocks with springs.
- Invented the compound microscope and gregorian compound telescope. He is credited with the invention of the wheel barometer, hydrometer and anemometer.
- Coined the term 'cells' for biology.
- Worked with Christopher Wren after the London Fire of 1666 as a surveyor and architect.
- Served as The Royal Society's Curator of Experiments where he was required to perform several demonstrations at each weekly meeting. He held this position for forty years.
- Fellow of Royal Society.
- The Hooke Medal is presented in his honor from the British Society of Cell Biologists.
Hooke and Issac Newton were involved in a dispute over the idea of the force of gravity following an inverse square relationship to define the elliptical orbits of planets. Hooke and Newton discussed their ideas in letters to each other. When Newton published his Principia, he did not credit anything to Hooke. When Hooke disputed Newton's claims, Newton denied any wrong. The resulting feud between the leading English scientists of the time would continue until Hooke's death.
Newton became President of the Royal Society that same year and many of Hooke's collections and instruments went missing as well as the only known portrait of the man. As President, Newton was responsible for the items entrusted to the Society, but it was never shown he had any involvement in the loss of these items.
Interesting Trivia
Craters on the Moon and Mars bear his name.
