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Home | Biography | An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth | Hooke's Law | Resources
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Whilst
plague is rampant in London, Hooke stays at Epsom, working as the
assistant of Philosopher Dr John Wilkins and physician/statistician
Sir William Petty at Durdans, the seat of the Earl of Berkeley. In March of 1666, Hooke creates a series of drawings of Mars, which will enable scientists to determine its period of rotation some 200 years later. A few weeks later, at a meeting of the Royal Society, Hooke reads a discourse on gravity, suggesting measuring it's force using a pendulum. Two months later, he lectures on curvilinear motion and shows that the earth and moon's center of gravity describes an elliptic pattern around the sun. He also presents his version of the anemometer, and a weather clock. In August of that same year, Hooke shares his observations of the comet of 1664 with the Royal Society. In June of 1667, Hooke presents a discourse on the effect of earthquakes, in September, he exhibits a model for the rebuilding of London, following the city's devastation by the Great Fire of 1666. His model is not adopted, but he is hired by The City Corporation as a surveyor, along with Peter Mills and Edward Jerman. King Charles II also appoints a Commission for the rebuilding of the City nominating Sir Christopher Wren, Hugh May, and Roger Pratt as the three Crown Commissioners. Hooke and Wren are responsible for the creation of the Monument to the Great Fire. Hooke also redesigns the Bethlem (Bedlam) Hospital, the Royal College of Physicians, Ragley Hall, and Montague House. Hooke also designed Willen Church in Buckinhamshire, for his old headmaster at Westminster. That same year, Hooke also explains the scintillation of stars; two years later, in 1669, Hooke attempts to at measure the parallax of a fixed star; a year later, he delivers a Cutlerian lecture on his findings. The results of Hooke's research will lead to James Bradley's discovery of stellar aberration in 1725. In February of 1672, Robert Hooke publishes a paper on diffraction of light, objecting to Sir Isaac Newton's communication on the same subject to the Royal Society one month earlier. In 1674, Hooke publishes An Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth by Observations, the first record of stellar observation in daylight. Hooke stirs up controversy when during a Cutlerian lecture, he refers to Hevelius' "Machina Celestis", as ""that curoius and pompous book". That same year, he is one of the first to construct a Gregorian reflecting telescope. Hooke and Newton clash once again in December of 1675, when Newton presents his "discourse on colour". Hooke claims that most of the material in Newton's lecture consists of findings he had already documented in his Micrographia book, published ten years earlier. The arguement comes to an end once Newton admits to having used Hooke's research as an inspiration for his own. More drama ensues when Huyghens "re-discovers" the application of spiral springs in the construction of watches. Hooke, retaliates by having clockmaker Thomas Tompion make some of his"'new watches". Shortly thereafter, Hooke publishes the principles of the spiral springs in A Description of Helioscopes. This starts a quarrel with Royal Society secretary Henry Oldenburg, whom Hooke accuses of being a "Trafficker of Intelligence". |
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