Talk:Robert Hooke

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Contents

[edit] Comments

Sir Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica prepared April 1687 and sent to Doctor Edmund Halley for publication caused Hooke to claim priority over the realization of the inverse square law of gravity. Newton had made no mention in his first edition of Hooke's contribution, but did made some amends in the second edition. Newton tried to prevent the publication of the third edition in reaction to these claims. Hooke's 1662 voyage to the West Indies helped him discover how gravity changes (with a weaker attraction) near the equator inspired his application of the Inverse-square law in regards to planetary motion.

History knows Hooke wrote a letter to Newton in 1679 explaining his theories on planetary motion which he considered to be a force continuously acting upon the planet and diverting it from a straight path. Newton wrote back explaining his theory of the Earth's rotation, providing a sketch showing the path of a falling object spiralling towards the centre of the earth. Newton admitted his own drawing was wrong but 'corrected' Hooke's sketch based on his (Newton's) theory that the force of gravity was a constant when Hooke replied that his (Hooke's) theory of planetary motion would make the path of the falling object an ellipse - providing a sketch to demonstrate his argument. It is important to note here that Hooke wrote again to Newton stating that he (Hooke) considered gravity to involve an inverse square law. Gravity isn't a constant as Hooke could empirically prove.

Hooke's contemporaries may have had difficulties in grasping this concept for in 1684 Wren, Hooke, and Halley discussed at the Royal Society, whether the elliptical shape of planetary orbits was a consequence of an inverse square law of force depending on the distance from the Sun. Halley wrote that Robert Hook says he has the answer but would not publish it for some time so that others (Newton?) trying and failing might know how to value it. Newton tried to prevent the publication of the third edition in reaction to these claims. Fifty years later, after the death of Hooke when Newton wrote his own recollections of these events, the account he gives disagrees with the historical facts and records surviving this period. These records are available for inspection today.

When Newton became the President of the Royal Society in 1703, the year of Hooke's death, his duties would have involved the responsibility of the society's repository, including the various donations by fellows of the society. Many of Hooke's contributions have been lost or dispersed without record as to what happened to them. Hooke's design for a marine chronometer was rediscovered only in 1950 at the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge. Conjecture may suggest that Newton acted deliberately in losing many important works. Many other causes could have contributed to the loss of these items —— although it might be considered that Newton had motives to imply culpability.

FYI - The portrait was recently rediscovered! - Sparky

As it happens I have just borrowed my father's copy of the relevant five volumes of Gunther's Early Science at Oxford which has renewed my interest (trivia: at least one of the five was Espinasse's personal copy). Some light reading for bedtime, there :-) - Just zis  Guy, you know? [T]/[C] (W) AfD? 15:10, 27 November 2005 (UTC)

all of this stuff is lies. we found out that people were just putting fake stuff on this website.we expect to delete it asap —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.1.39.91 (talk) 18:21, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Diminutive stature

Was Hooke 5'10"? Do we have a reference. If so that doesn't sound particularly short. In fact according to [1], 70% of American men today are 5'10" or shorter.

On the other hand he may have had a stoop, as mentioned in the quotes here. -- Solipsist 01:02, 23 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Solipsist is right, this is quite clear form the papers in Gunther. - Just zis  Guy, you know? [T]/[C] (W) AfD? 13:28, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

123.243.247.83 07:32, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] John Ray/Robert Hooke

A portrait, claimed by historian Lisa Jardine to be of Robert Hooke
A portrait, claimed by historian Lisa Jardine to be of Robert Hooke

This image is claimed to be of Hooke, but is not authenticated. Is it worth adding it to the article itself, if only to illustrate the view (stated in the article) that it is authentic? GeeJo (t) (c) 02:26, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

I'd say so. It is consistent with contemporary descriptions of Hooke, and the argument advanced by Jardine is (if I recall correctly) reasonably convincing. - Just zis  Guy, you know? [T]/[C] AfD? 11:49, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

It is offensive to offer the portrait at the head of the article with a caption that says this is not the subject. It is unnecessary to show a discredited portrait. Is there no picture of the bust ? Reg nim

I see that some one (Reg nim?) has deleted the discredited portrait. I think we have to agree and let the deletion stand. --Concrete Cowboy 18:52, 9 October 2006 (UTC)
The picture of the Hooke bust can be found in the weblinks, but this engraving is not very satisfying ...

As well known young Robert Hooke had been a student of Dr. Richard Busby and had lived at Busby's home for a while. For Busby's portrait please confine to

http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/distance/locke1/back2.html

Busby's portrait was originally painted by John Riley (1646-1691). We only know James Watson's engraving of this painting (published in 1775), showing Busby together with a scholar. Does anybody know anything more about the Busby portrait and the identity of the scholar? Please confine the scholar's face to the face of the Hooke seal discussed in the article.

[edit] Dugald Stewart on Hooke's Priority

In his Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, Ch. 4, Sect. 4, Dugald Stewart quoted Hooke as follows: "I will explain (says Hooke, in a communication to the Royal Society in 1666) a system of the world very different from any yet received. It is founded on the three following positions. 1. That all the heavenly bodies have not only a gravitation of their parts to their own proper centre, but that they also mutually attract each other within their spheres of action. 2. That all bodies having a simple motion, will continue to move in a straight line, unless continually deflected from it by some extraneous force, causing them to describe a circle, an ellipse, or some other curve. 3. That this attraction is so much the greater as the bodies are nearer. As to the proportion in which those forces diminish by an increase of distance, I own I have not discovered it, although I have made some experiments to this purpose. I leave this to others, who have time and knowledge sufficient for the task."Lestrade 19:45, 9 March 2006 (UTC)Lestrade

[edit] Boyle, maybe

"It is possible that Hooke formally stated Boyle's Law, as Boyle was not a mathematician." Certainly it is possible, but is it supported or speculation? If the latter, I think it would be at least as good to leave teh reader to make that speculation - just saying that Boyle was not, assuming that is clear, a mathematician, an that Hooke was and worked for him. Midgley 13:40, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

It's in Gunther. Just zis Guy you know? 19:19, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
OK, maybe it should read "Gunther suggests.." /speculated/wondered. Neal Stephenson gave Hooke a mixed sort of treatment - presumably he had read Gunther...Midgley 22:21, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Hooke Folio surfaces

From The Independent", Fri 17th March 2006, page 6: Hooke Mss to fetch more than £1m. The RObert Hooke Folio (picture) lost for 300y and encapsulates the revolution in scientific understnading in the 1660s is expeceted to fetch . auction Bonhams, London. record of the scientist's experim.. ; correspondence 3 inches thick auction 28th March." Midgley 13:40, 18 March 2006 (UTC)

Hooke Folio - "Turning the Pages"
Something truly remarkable happened in January 2006. An unknown 320-year old text was discovered, written by one of the world's greatest scientists. It contained Robert Hooke's minutes of the earliest years of the Royal Society's work and his reflections and comments upon them.
It is difficult to overstate the importance of 17th century science and the scholarly potential of this volume. The Royal Society was created in 1660 as the world's first independent Fellowship-based academy of science. It promoted the new philosophy of learning by experiment, observation and international correspondence. As the Society's Curator of Experiments from 1662, Robert Hooke was at the forefront of this revolution and by 1677, he had been appointed Royal Society Secretary.
The Hooke Folio shows its author in both roles, as a working experimental scientist and as an administrator. More importantly, it reveals year-by-year and meeting-by-meeting the intellectual ferment of the period 1661-1691 when science, in the modern sense, was born.
Rivalries and disputes over inventions meant that Hooke did not trust the written account of Royal Society activities left by his Secretarial predecessor, Henry Oldenburg. Therefore the Folio begins with Hooke's corrective copy of early minutes, intended as a definitive record of the events described. In fact, Oldenburg's and Hooke's writings enrich one another.
As Secretary, Hooke drafted original descriptions of Society meetings from the late 1670s and these rough minutes form the second part of the Hooke Folio. Here, the Folio contains material that was lost or distorted in official accounts of the Royal Society's story, for example fuller versions of major scientific discoveries.
The Hooke Folio is a uniquely interesting record of 17th century science. Now, you can view the secrets of the manuscript by turning pages that have been undisturbed for three centuries. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.33.119.112 (talk) 14:27, 12 October 2007 (UTC)
The above material, originally added unsigned by an anonymous user, seems to have been copied verbatim from this Royal Society web page. Since the preceding text is a copyrighted news release, is it appropriate for this Wikipedia page concerning Robert Hooke's article? - Astrochemist (talk) 13:30, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Flea drawing

Since there was no evidience for the assertion that the flea drawing was by Christopher Wren and the image page attributes it to Hooke, I have removed "by Christpher Wren". IanWills 14:07, 29 March 2006 (UTC) IanWills

Robert Hooke was a very tough scientist. After his fathers death and an orphanage of a childhood he still was one of the most famous scientists of his time. - 71.107.17.183 04:52, 25 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Inconsistencies

The list of Hooke's inventions seems to have some incorrect listings. On this page he is credited with the invention of the compound microscope and thermometer. Other pages contradict this.(and I'm pretty sure the other pages are right) I Used To Be DooD 00:01, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The rhumb lines

From the article for rhumb lines as were in 20/01/07 00:37 GMT:

"In navigation, a rhumb line (or loxodrome) is a line crossing all meridians at the same angle, i.e. a path of constant bearing. It is obviously easier to manually steer than the constantly changing heading of the shorter great circle route.

The idea of a loxodrome was invented by a Portuguese Mathematician Pedro Nunes in the 1500s."

MindMeNot 00:36, 20 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm not quite sure what the above has to do with Robert Hooke. Should it be deleted? Amplified? - Astrochemist (talk) 13:30, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

Was part of Robert Hooke's invention list mentioned before which I believe was removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by MindMeNot (talk • contribs) 12:07, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] More info please

I would really like more information on Robert Hooke please because it said absolutely nothing about him working on cells and most of the time when you're trying to write a biology report and there is nothing about cells then you are screwed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.14.175.117 (talk) 21:23, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Brothers

In Science: A History: 1543 to 2001 by John Gribbin, it is stated that Hooke had only two siblings - a sister, Katherine, born in 1628, and John, born in 1630 (who became a grocer). Gribbin also states that Hooke's education was neglected early on not because of headaches (although that may have been part of it; Gribbin doesn't say), but because he was initially so sickly that he wasn't expected to live. He was so delicate that for the first seven years his diet consisted of milk and milk products, fruit, and no meat whatsoever. America's Wang 13:29, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Hooke picture?

I'm removing the Hooke picture added to the page today. The picture carries no authoritative citation to being that of Robert Hooke. It would be quite a coup for Wikipedians to uncover a Hooke picture since his biographers have failed to do so for several centuries. --Astrochemist 00:51, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Does anyone know then what is the origin of the image I uploaded to commons? Gustav von Humpelschmumpel 23:40, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
There's another one here. Gustav von Humpelschmumpel 23:48, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
This is no portrait medal of Hooke but of Italian astronomer Domenico Cassini as can be easily proved just by reading the inscription of the medal! Andreas Pechtl, 15:38, 8 May 2008 —Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.226.110.98 (talk)

[edit] Hooke picture, part two

I just now reverted the Robert Hooke page to the 18 January 2008 version of Coemgenus. The portrait that was added needs to be kept off the page unless there is high-level scholarly evidence that it is in any way related to Hooke. See previous comments above about the picture. (The picture appears to come from a grade-school class project.) -- The burden of proof is on any editor who adds this alleged Hooke portrait to the article. Please see WPV. In over 300 years, no one has yet found a Hooke picture. (On the other hand, if you find one, please phone the newspapers!) -- As for the infobox that was recently added, please carefully consider the categories before putting it back. Hooke was a many-sided individual. -- Astrochemist (talk) 21:22, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

It took me several weeks to locate another source for the above picture. The source given at Wikimedia appears to be a school project in the US. It is likely that this alleged Hooke portrait was taken from page 16 of M. F. Ashley Montagu's A Spurious Portrait of Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703), Isis, volume 33, March, 1941. See also the July 3, 1939 issue of Time (page 39). - Astrochemist (talk) 23:24, 17 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Education

I find the early life section very confusing as it talks about Hooke's parents giving up on his education and then goes on to say he was educated in Freshwater and Westminster school from the age of 13. So at what point did they give up on his education and did they then change their minds and send him to Westminster? Also it seems rather strange to talk about his birth in the second paragraph rather than the first. It reads like two seperate strands that have been lumped together. Richerman (talk) 17:32, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

I agree. The works cited in the "Further reading" section would probably allow one to sort out the above. If I can find time I'll try, but you or someone else may be able to do it faster than me. - Astrochemist (talk) 13:06, 16 February 2008 (UTC)
I see you found some time :-) Thanks for that it reads much better now. Richerman (talk) 22:05, 16 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Help with Hooke

Last weekend I spent quite a bit of time adding to almost every section of the Hooke article. There is still much to do, especially regarding Hooke's personal life, friends, family, and so on. I'm not a Hooke expert, just someone with too many books and a long interest in the history of science. Help with Hooke will be appreciated, even if it's just policing the article to keep the vandalism down. - Astrochemist (talk) 02:39, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

Hooke is often depicted as a somewhat hateful grouch. Today I added a new section with some documentation for those depictions. What is still needed is something to give a more-balanced picture of his personality. As before, help will be appreciated. - Astrochemist (talk) 21:30, 1 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Which pictures?

I'm certainly no fan of long stretches of unbroken web text, but I wonder to what degree pictures of others besides Hooke and of buildings largely associated with others are appropriate for this article. Would Huygens, Flamsteed, Halley, and Barrow pictures be appropriate for Newton's Wikipedia page? Are Wollaston and Davy pictures appropriate for Faraday's page (and vice versa)? I'm somewhat concerned that once the door is opened then pictures of others mentioned in Hooke's article also will be added, cluttering and distracting from the text. Is there a Wikipedia policy or are there some guidelines that apply here? -- Astrochemist (talk) 14:10, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

One saving grace of Wiki is the use of pics to visualise and lessen the often deadening effect of large blocks of text. Your suggestion about Davy and Faraday are great. How many textbooks use colour images? Printing is so far behind the times that Wiki is the single resource which can exploit pictures top relieve text. I wish academic journals could be so liberated. Peterlewis (talk) 17:33, 8 May 2008 (UTC)

The current version of the article is a great improvement on earlier editions by adding relevant pics. It brings the man and the scientist back to life, and recognises his amazing work. I added the Davy pic to the article on Faraday, and I notice others have reciprocated with another much improved article. The pics in my opinion bring these great scientists back to life, and are a big advance on the 1911 versions. Peterlewis (talk) 05:54, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Rough Edit: removed awkward quote(?)

I was reading this article for general interest and noticed a sentence at the end of the "Early Life" part of the biography section that seemed rather out of place. Furthermore, it was referenced as a quote (although was not in quotation marks) and read "Robert has done many important things in his life, he helped us understand things better, he made clocks more accurate and help[sic] in a lot of other area's[sic]." There was no lead-in to this sentence and it doesn't appear to me to be related to the surrounding text. Anyway, I don't really know any better regarding this supposed quotation but I removed it since it was in a very inappropriate place. I am just drawing attention so that perhaps this article's regular editors can make a better resolution and include the quote where appropriate. Joshua Davis (talk) 05:31, 28 May 2008 (UTC)