Tabla de Contenidos
Robert Hooke was a versatile British scientist and architect who made numerous contributions to both science and engineering, as well as many other fields of knowledge. He is best known for his contributions to physics in the form of Hooke’s law that describes the behavior of elastic materials and for the discovery of cells, launching the study of microbiology.
He is considered a scholar for his extensive knowledge in fields as diverse as physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, engineering, and architecture, as well as philosophy and art. During his lifetime, he displayed an amazing ability to develop creative solutions to complex problems by combining his vast interdisciplinary knowledge.
birth and childhood
Robert Hooke was born on July 18, 1635 in the town of Freshwater on the Isle of Wight, off the south coast of England. He was the second son from the second marriage of his father, John Hooke, who was vicar of the city of Freshwater. John Hooke married Robert’s mother, Cecily Gyles, in 1622, seven years after his first wife, Margaret Lawson, died in 1615. Robert’s older brother, John, was already five years old when he was born. his younger brother.
Robert Hooke’s early childhood was marked by failing health which caused him to spend most of his time at home. Until the death of his father at thirteen years of age, Robert did not leave his hometown to travel to another city. On that first trip he began an academic and artistic training that would make Robert Hooke the scholar he later became.
Education
Robert Hooke’s early studies had nothing to do with science. At thirteen years of age he left the Isle of Wight for London where he became an apprentice to the renowned English artist Peter Lely. Although he showed great skill in painting, he was unable to continue his apprenticeship due to his failing health. The vapors of the solvents used in the preparation of the paintings affected him considerably.
As a result, Robert left Lely’s workshop and enrolled in London’s Westminster School. There he began his formal academic training in different areas, including languages such as Hebrew, Latin and Greek. It was also at this prestigious school where he learned the delicate craft of luthiery (a luthier is dedicated to the construction, adjustment and repair of musical instruments), which would provide him with the basis for the design and construction of various scientific instruments throughout his life. fruitful professional career.
After graduating from Westminster, he completed his university studies at Oxford University, specifically at Christ Church College . During his studies, he began working for Thomas Willis and Robert Boyle. The latter commissioned him to design and build an air pump, which he would later use to develop his well-known gas law (Boyle’s Law) which expresses the relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas maintained at constant temperature.
Also at Oxford he made some of his most outstanding scientific discoveries.
contributions to science
His skills as a musical instrument maker, his scientific knowledge and everything he learned during his studies at Oxford allowed Hooke to invent many important scientific instruments. This earned him epithets like “the renaissance man” and “the English Da Vinci.”
The law of elasticity or Hooke’s Law
The most important contributions of Robert Hooke were related to physics, biology and optics. In 1655, still at Oxford, he developed his law of elasticity, which later became known as Hooke’s Law. This establishes that the deformation of elastic materials is proportional to the force applied to them. It is one of the fundamental laws of classical mechanics and establishes the bases for understanding the behavior of bodies subjected to tension and compression efforts.
Hooke used his newly acquired knowledge of how springs work and applied it in inventing the balance spring for the period control of watches (he was also a skilled watchmaker).
Contributions in the field of optics
On the other hand, Hooke was also interested in the study of optics and the properties of light. He was one of the first to report the wave behavior of light and, furthermore, he was the first to build a Gregorian telescope (invented by James Gregory, but who did not have access to the materials necessary to make the mirrors). Using the Gregorian telescope, Hooke carried out countless astronomical studies on the motion of the planets. He studied the Moon (there is a crater named after him), the planet Mars and other celestial bodies.
Contributions to astronomy and astrophysics
Thanks to the use of the Gregorian telescope, Hooke came very close to deducing the inverse square relationship of gravitational force with distance before Newton himself. In fact, he openly criticized what is considered the father of classical mechanics for not giving him due credit for developing his theory of gravitation published in his masterpiece, the Principia, accusing Newton of plagiarism in that regard . Many historians believe that this was, at least in part, why Hooke became somewhat moody and sullen in the last years of his life.
The discovery of the cell
Finally, his greatest contribution to science was the improvement of the microscope that allowed him to observe microorganisms for the first time in the history of mankind. Looking at a cross section of a piece of bottle cork with his newly improved microscope, he noted the presence of honeycomb-like structures with small hollow cells, surrounded by what appeared to be a wall.
Hooke immediately began a series of observations of the microscopic world which he published in his masterpiece and greatest contribution to mankind, Micrographia , published in 1665. The work presents a set of images, exquisitely drawn thanks to his early artistic training in the workshops of Peter Lely. Hooke coined the term “cell” to describe these small structures apparently common to all living things, however small they may be.
Micrographia is one of the most important works in the history of biology, since it involved a total paradigm shift in relation to the way we see the world of living systems. However, many scientists of the time questioned his results, simply because they found it too incredible that matter could be so complex or have such exotic shapes as those drawn by Hooke in his work.
He was an early proponent of the theory of evolution
Another of Hooke’s important contributions to science also comes from his observations through the microscope. The observation of a series of microscopic fossils led Hooke to propose a primitive form of the theory of evolution.
Contributions to architecture
As part of his multifaceted nature, Robert Hooke did not just pursue science or engineering. His life can be divided into a phase in which he was a very prolific and successful scientific researcher, albeit without financial return. He then practiced as an architect after the Great Fire of London in 1666, from which he amassed a considerable fortune.
His success and notoriety at Oxford University earned him appointment as Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society of London in 1662. Later, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, earning him many connections with local government. . Following the Great Fire, Hooke was appointed Surveyor of the City of London and was active in the redevelopment and rebuilding of the city. It is estimated that Hooke himself designed the reconstruction or new construction of about half of the buildings that were destroyed by the fire, earning handsome commissions on each design.
Most of the buildings that he designed no longer exist and many others were wrongly awarded to other architects. However, there are still some standing that bear his name. We can say, then, that Robert Hooke contributed significantly to shaping the face of the English capital at the end of the 17th century.
Death of Robert Hooke
Robert Hooke died on March 3, 1703 in the City of London. His death is attributed to scurvy and possibly some other unknown disease; He was 68 years old at that time. He never married or left children, and his fortune was found in his room after his death. It is known that he was buried in the graveyard of St. Helen’s Bishopsgate in the City of London, although the exact location of his grave is unknown.
Robert Hooke’s works not only directly contributed enormously with their results to science, engineering and other fields, but also indirectly. Several of Hooke’s theories served as inspiration for other studies of great importance, among which Newton’s work stands out. Newton was so affected by Hooke’s accusations of plagiarism of the theory of universal gravitation that he postponed the publication of his work ” Optics ” until after Hooke’s death.
Other notable scientists whose work built on Hooke’s discoveries included the father of microbiology, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the geologist and anatomist Niels Stensen.
References
Arrimada, M. (2021, December 16). Robert Hooke: biography and contributions of this English researcher . Psychology and Mind. https://psicologiaymente.com/biografias/robert-hooke
Biography. (2020, June 22). Robert Hooke . https://www.biography.com/scholar/robert-hooke
Fernández, T., & Tamaro, E. (2004). Biography of Robert Hooke . Biographies and Lives. https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/h/hooke.htm
Hurtado De Mendoza, J. (nd). Pathological Anatomy – Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703) . Pathological anatomy. https://especialidades.sld.cu/anatomiapatologica/personalidades-de-la-patologia-en-cuba-y-el-mundo/robert-hooke-1635-1703/
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2022, February 27). Robert Hooke | Biography, Discoveries, & Facts . Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Hooke
The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. (nd). Micrographia | work by Hooke . Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Micrographia
TheSchoolRun. (nd). Robert Hooke . https://www.theschoolrun.com/homework-help/robert-hooke
