I was born at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight in 1635. I am the son of John Hooke,the curate at All Saints' Church. The church stands at the end of what is now Hooke Road, which also has the Hooke Museum.
I am a most brilliant and versatile scientists, yet have received little public recognition compared to the likes of Newton and Wren for my achievements.
Today no portrait exists of me, there was a commemorative window in St Helen's Bishopsgate, however I believe that this was lost in the IRA Bishopsgate bombing! It has been suggested that Newton and his conspiritors, who worked so hard to tarnish my character, destroyed the only portrait of me. So I was delighted to find out that a 21st artist had painted a likeness of me to celebrate my work.
Portrait of me by Guy Heyden
To give you some idea of my appearance my friend John Aubrey described me as follows:
'He is but of midling stature, something crooked, pale faced, and his face but little below, but his head is lardge, his eie full and popping, and not quick; a grey eie. He haz a delicate head of haire, browne, and of an excellent moist curle. He is and ever was temperate and moderate in dyet, etc.'
Richard Waller described me in later life when I had become embittered by my controversies with Christiaan Huyghens and cheated by Newton:,
'As to his person he was but despicable, being very crooked, tho' I have heard from himself, and others, that he was strait till about 16 Years of Age when he first grew awry, by frequent practicing, with a Turn-Lath . . . He was always very pale and lean, and laterly nothing but Skin and Bone, with a meagre aspect, his eyes grey and full, with a sharp ingenious Look whilst younger; his nose but thin, of a moderate height and length; his mouth meanly wise, and upper lip thin; his chin sharp, and Forehead large; his Head of a middle size. He wore his own hair of a dark Brown colour, very long and hanging neglected over his Face uncut and lank....'
No wonder I was so miserable....even my friends find me repulsive!
I arrived at Westminster School during the first decade of Dr Busby's 55 year incumbency as Head Master. I acquired a mastery of ancient languages, learned to play the organ, 'contrived severall ways of flying', and mastered the first six books of Euclid's Elements in a week.
I secured a place as chorister at Christ Church Oxford, leaving Westminster in 1653. In Oxford Hooke I met those who would go on to form the Royal Society, and where I was encouraged in a wide variety of scientific endeavours. In 1658 I became assistant to Robert Boyle, where my mechanical skills were of use especially in the construction of the improved version of the air pump of Otto Guericke described in Boyle's New Experiments PhysicoMechanicall (1660). In 1662 I was appointed Curator of Experiments to the newly founded Royal Society, being responsible for the experiments performed at the weekly meetings. This role was as that of an employee, not at that time as an equal to the Fellows. As Curator I had rooms in Gresham College, and in 1665 he was appointed Professor of Geometry and carried out astronomical observations, and was also elected FRS. In 1677 I became a Secretary to the Royal Society.
My research spanned over 40 years and covered a wide variety of Natural Philosophy. I suggested a wave theory of light in Micrographia (1665), comparing the spreading of light vibrations to that of waves in water. I proposed in 1672 that the vibrations in light might be perpendicular to the direction of propagation. I investigated the colours of membranes and of thin plates of mica, and established the variation of the light pattern with the thickness of the plates.
Micrographia was a series of observations made with the aid of magnifying lenses; some of these on very small things, some on astronomical bodies. My image of a flea is famous; and I coined the term 'cell' in a biological context as a result of my studies of cork.
I am also well known by those who study elementary Physics through Hooke's Law: Ut tensio, sic vis. The extension of a spring is proportional to the weight hanging from it; this work sprang from my interest in flight and the spring or elasticity of air. This work appeared in De Potentia Restitutiva in 1678. My interest in gases and their properties also found expression in his work on respiration; in one experiment I entered a sealed vessel, from which the air was gradually pumped. Unfortunately this experiment caused some damage to my ears and nose.
I attempted to prove the motion of the Earth (1674), and put forward a theory of planetary motion based on the correct principle of inertia and a balance between an outward centrifugal force and an inward gravitational attraction to the Sun. In 1679, I wrote to Newton and suggested that this attraction would vary inversely as the square of the distance from the Sun.
My theory was qualitatively correct, but I did not have the mathematical ability to give it an exact, quantitative expression but my interest in gravity occupied my research for over 20 years.
Although my optics and gravitation was overshadowed by that of Newton, I was unsurpassed in the seventeenth century as an inventor and designer of scientific instruments. Thus among many other inventions I invented the spring control of the balance wheel in watches; the compound microscope; a wheel barometer; and the universal, or Hooke's, joint, found in all motor vehicles. I made important contributions to the design of astronomical instruments, being the first to insist on the importance of resolving power, and the advantage of using hair lines in place of silk or metal wire. I built the first reflecting telescope, observed the rotation of Mars, and noted one of the earliest examples of a double star!
I am also known as an important architect. I was appointed by the City of London as Surveyor following the Great Fire of 1666. This tested not only my architectural skills, but his administrative ones as well. I designed many London buildings, but Victorian redevelopment and 20th century war have taken their toll. The Royal College of Physicians building (1679) is no more, and of the Bethlehem Hospital, or 'Bedlam', only the statues Raving Mania and Melancholy Mania survive in the Victoria and Albert Museum. I worked with Sir Christopher Wren (also an Old Westminster) on the design of The Royal Observatory at Greenwich, and The Monument (to The Great Fire) in Fish Hill Street. Of my buildings outside London, the church at Willen in Buckinghamshire survives intact, as does Ragley Hall in Warwickshire though this is not in original Hooke condition.
My reputation suffered during my lifetime and beyond from my many controversies with other scientists over questions of priority, such as that with Christiaan Huyghens over the spring regulator. Those with Newton, first over optics (1672) and secondly over priority in the formulation of the inverse square law of gravitation (1686), were more serious, especially given the prominence of both men in the Royal Society.
From 1696 my health deteriorated, and I suffered from swollen legs, chest pains, dizziness, emaciation, blindness - symptoms possibly of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. I died intestate on 3rd March 1703, in London, leaving £9580 and a small property on the Isle of Wight...