Hooke, Robert ___ 1635-1703 ___ British ___ scientist

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Hooke was born on the Isle of Wight, and educated at Westminster School and, thanks to a scholarship, at Christ Church, Oxford. He worked as an assistant for the scientist Robert Boyle between 1657 and 1662, and then became curator of experiments at the Royal Society. In 1663, he was made a fellow of the Society. In this mid-1660s period he was also lecturing on subjects such as mechanics and geometry, and publishing books such as 'Micrographia' with elaborate drawings of objects viewed through a microscope, and 'Cometa' on the nature of comets. After the great fire in 1666, he was appointed surveyor of London to supervise rebuilding works, and he himself designed some new buildings, such as Bethlehem Hospital. In the 1670s, Hooke seems to have been at odds with other scientists, including Newton and Huygens; and he and the Royal Society were the subject of Shadwell's satirical play 'The Virtuoso'. In 1677, Hooke took over as secretary of the Royal Society. The following year he published 'De Potentia Bestitutiva or Of Spring', which described the law of elasticity known as Hooke's Law. He was also responsible for a variety of other important scientific understandings, including phenomenon of diffraction. In the 1680s, Hooke was involved in a further dispute with Newton over the latter's 'Principia' which was published without any recognition of Hooke's contribution to the theories on planetary motions.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio
The Diary Review - Boglice around the neck

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1672-1681 ___ social society science art culture

WEB TEXT LINKS
etext
some quotes
some quotes

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
Guildhall Library

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
Diary of Robert Hooke
 

May 2005, July 2008, April 2013
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.