91-594: Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London , England that does not accept students or award degrees. It was founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham , and hosts over 140 free public lectures every year. Since 2001, all lectures have been made available online. As of 2024 the Provost is Professor Martin Elliott . Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of
182-572: A wave theory of light . His is the first-recorded hypothesis of the cause of the expansion of matter by heat, of air's composition by small particles in constant motion that thus generate its pressure, and of heat as energy. In physics, Hooke inferred that gravity obeys an inverse square law and arguably was the first to hypothesise such a relation in planetary motion, a principle Isaac Newton furthered and formalised in Newton's law of universal gravitation . Priority over this insight contributed to
273-544: A Hall, with 18th-century chambers and reception room. The Hall has three wooden bays, and dates from the 15th Century with 16th-century linen fold wood panelling. The roof timbers include the only surviving crown posts in Greater London. Some chalk-and-tile walling in the seminar room below dates back to Roman London . The Hall suffered from poor repair and two inadequate restorations in the 19th century. The Mercers' Company organised substantial repairs in 1932. The roof
364-548: A balance-controlled watch before the Royal Society, may support Hooke's claim to priority for the idea. Nevertheless, it is Huygens who is credited with building the first watch to use a balance spring. Hooke's announcement of his law of elasticity using an anagram was a method scientists, such as Hooke, Huygens and Galileo , sometimes used to establish priority for a discovery without revealing details. Hooke used mechanical analogues to understand fundamental processes such as
455-591: A brass clock dismantled, he built a wooden replica that "would go". Hooke's father died in October 1648, leaving £40 in his will to Robert (plus another £10 held over from his grandmother). At the age of 13, he took this to London to become an apprentice to the celebrated painter Peter Lely . Hooke also had "some instruction in drawing" from the limner Samuel Cowper but "the smell of the Oil Colours did not agree with his Constitution, increasing his Head-ache to which he
546-494: A curator to furnish the society with experiments, and this was unanimously passed and Hooke was named on Boyle's recommendation. The Society did not have a reliable income to fully fund the post of Curator of Experiments but in 1664, John Cutler settled an annual gratuity of £50 on the Society to found a "Mechanick" lectureship at Gresham College on the understanding the Society would appoint Hooke to this task. On 27 June 1664, Hooke
637-421: A disgruntled, selfish, anti-social curmudgeon. For example, Arthur Berry said Hooke "claimed credit for most of the scientific discoveries of the time". Sullivan wrote he was "positively unscrupulous" and had an "uneasy apprehensive vanity" in dealings with Newton. Manuel described Hooke as "cantankerous, envious, vengeful". According to More, Hooke had both a "cynical temperament" and a "caustic tongue". Andrade
728-485: A dog could be kept alive with its thorax opened, provided air was pumped in and out of its lungs. He noted the difference between venous and arterial blood, and thus demonstrated that the Pabulum vitae ("food of life") and flammae [flames] were the same thing. There were also experiments on gravity, the falling of objects, the weighing of bodies, the measurement of barometric pressure at different heights, and
819-1068: A figurative University of London in Sir George Buck 's tract, The Third Universitie of England: Or a Treatise of the Foundations of all the Colledges, Auncient Schooles of Priviledge, and of Houses of Learning, and Liberall Arts, within and about the Most Famous Cittie of London , published in 1615 as an appendix to John Stow 's Annales . The 17th century saw various proposals for a third university in England , including one in London, taking in Gresham College. The college remained in Gresham's mansion in Bishopsgate until 1768, and moved about London thereafter until
910-555: A fourth year, and give six lectures a year. There are also regular visiting professors appointed to give series of lectures at the College, and a many single-lecture speakers. The Gresham Special Lecture – now called The Sir Thomas Gresham Annual Lecture – originated in 1983 as a free public lecture delivered by a prominent speaker. It was devised as a focus-point among the many free public lectures offered every year. THIS IS THE LASTE WILL WRITTEN and disposition of me Sir Thomas Gresham of
1001-580: A mechanism that improved the regularity of pendulum clocks used for astronomical time-keeping. Hooke characterised his Oxford days as the foundation of his lifelong passion for science. The friends he made there, particularly Christopher Wren , were important to him throughout his career. Willis introduced Hooke to Robert Boyle , who the Club sought to attract to Oxford. In 1655, Boyle moved to Oxford and Hooke became nominally his assistant but in practice his co-experimenter. Boyle had been working on gas pressures;
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#17328516824151092-612: A medium for transmitting attraction and repulsion between separated celestial bodies, Hooke argued for an attracting principle of gravitation in Micrographia (1665). In a communication to the Royal Society in 1666, he wrote: I will explain a system of the world very different from any yet received. It is founded on the 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
1183-513: A new hypothesis from Paris about planetary motions, which he described at length; efforts to carry out or improve national surveys; and the difference of latitude between London and Cambridge. Newton's reply offered "a fansy of my own" about a terrestrial experiment rather than a proposal about celestial motions that might detect the Earth's motion; the experiment would use a body suspended in air and then dropped. Hooke wanted to discern how Newton thought
1274-496: A number of years following his arrival in London , which would have been circa 1820. 51°31′04″N 0°06′35″W / 51.5177°N 0.1098°W / 51.5177; -0.1098 Robert Hooke Robert Hooke FRS ( / h ʊ k / ; 18 July 1635 – 3 March 1703) was an English polymath who was active as a physicist ("natural philosopher"), astronomer, geologist, meteorologist and architect. He
1365-432: A particularly keen eye and was an adept mathematician, neither of which applied to Boyle. Hooke taught Boyle Euclid's Elements and Descartes 's Principles of Philosophy ; it also caused them to recognise fire as a chemical reaction and not, as Aristotle taught, a fundamental element of nature. According to Henry Robinson, Librarian of The Royal Society in 1935: Without his weekly experiments and prolific work
1456-419: A place at Christ Church , Oxford , receiving free tuition and accommodation as an organist and a chorister , and a basic income as a servitor , despite the fact he did not officially matriculate until 1658. In 1662, Hooke was awarded a Master of Arts degree. While a student at Oxford, Hooke was also employed as an assistant to Dr Thomas Willis – a physician, chemist and member of
1547-435: 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. ... Hooke's 1674 Gresham lecture, An Attempt to Prove
1638-571: A spinal deformity that was consistent with a diagnosis of Scheuermann's kyphosis , giving him in middle and later years a "thin and crooked body, over-large head and protruding eyes". Approaching these in a scientific spirit, he experimented with self-medication, diligently recording symptoms, substances and effects in his diary. He regularly used sal ammoniac , emetics, laxatives and opiates, which appear to have had an increasing effect on his physical and mental health over time. Hooke died in London on 3 March 1703, having been blind and bedridden during
1729-407: A year, all open to the public free of charge. Since 2001, the college has been recording its lectures and releasing them online in what is now an archive of over 2,000 lectures. Since 2007, lectures have also been available through YouTube , with 54 million views of 3,000 videos and 282,000 subscribers as of August 2024. Annual lectures series of particular note hosted by the college include:
1820-481: Is credited as one of the first scientists to investigate living things at microscopic scale in 1665, using a compound microscope that he designed. Hooke was an impoverished scientific inquirer in young adulthood who went on to become one of the most important scientists of his time. After the Great Fire of London in 1666, Hooke (as a surveyor and architect) attained wealth and esteem by performing more than half of
1911-494: Is known of Hooke's early life comes from an autobiography he commenced in 1696 but never completed; Richard Waller FRS mentions it in his introduction to The Posthumous Works of Robert Hooke, M.D. S.R.S. , which was printed in 1705. The work of Waller, along with John Ward 's Lives of the Gresham Professors , and John Aubrey 's Brief Lives form the major near-contemporaneous biographical accounts of his life. Hooke
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#17328516824152002-439: Is to read in his solemn lectures, first the principles of the sphere, and the theory of the planets, and the use of the astrolabe and the staff , and other common instruments for the capacity of mariners. The professors received £50 a year, and the duties of their positions were specified tightly. Today three further professorships have been added: The professors generally hold their positions for three years, extendable for
2093-565: Is usually painted of Hooke as a morose ... recluse is completely false". He interacted with noted artisans such as clock-maker Thomas Tompion and instrument-maker Christopher Cocks (Cox). Hooke often met Christopher Wren, with whom he shared many interests, and had a lasting friendship with John Aubrey. His diaries also make frequent reference to meetings at coffeehouses and taverns, as well as to dinners with Robert Boyle. On many occasions, Hooke took tea with his lab assistant Harry Hunt. Although he largely lived alone – apart from
2184-572: The Great Red Spot of Jupiter for two hours as it moved across the planet's face. In March 1665, he published his findings and from them, the Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini calculated the rotation period of Jupiter to be nine hours and fifty-five minutes. One of the most-challenging problems Hooke investigated was the measurement of the distance from Earth to a star other than the Sun. Hooke selected
2275-663: The Oxford Philosophical Club . The Philosophical Club had been founded by John Wilkins , Warden of Wadham College , who led this important group of scientists who went on to form the nucleus of the Royal Society . In 1659, Hooke described to the Club some elements of a method of heavier-than-air flight but concluded human muscles were insufficient to the task. Through the Club, Hooke met Seth Ward (the University's Savilian Professor of Astronomy ) and developed for Ward
2366-749: The Royal Exchange , left his estate jointly to the City of London Corporation and the Mercers' Company , which today support the college through the Joint Grand Gresham Committee under the presidency of the Lord Mayor of London . Gresham's will provided for the setting up of the college – in Gresham's mansion in Bishopsgate , on the site now occupied by Tower 42 , the former NatWest Tower – and endowed it with
2457-413: The balance spring or hairspring, which for the first time enabled a portable timepiece – a watch – to keep time with reasonable accuracy. A bitter dispute between Hooke and Christiaan Huygens on the priority of this invention was to continue for centuries after the death of both but a note dated 23 June 1670 in the journals of the Royal Society, describing a demonstration of
2548-494: The property line surveys and assisting with the city's rapid reconstruction. Often vilified by writers in the centuries after his death, his reputation was restored at the end of the twentieth century and he has been called "England's Leonardo [da Vinci] ". Hooke was a Fellow of the Royal Society and from 1662, he was its first Curator of Experiments. From 1665 to 1703, he was also Professor of Geometry at Gresham College . Hooke began his scientific career as an assistant to
2639-598: The "notion" of "the rule of the decrease of Gravity, being reciprocally as the squares of the distances from the Center". At the same time, according to Edmond Halley 's contemporaneous report, Hooke agreed "the Demonstration of the Curves generated thereby" was wholly Newton's. According to a 2002 assessment of the early history of the inverse square law: "by the late 1660s, the assumption of an 'inverse proportion between gravity and
2730-646: The Attraction always is in a duplicate proportion to the Distance from the Center Reciprocall, and Consequently that the Velocity will be in a subduplicate proportion to the Attraction and Consequently as Kepler Supposes Reciprocall to the Distance". (Hooke's inference about the velocity is incorrect. ) In 1686, when the first book of Newton's Principia was presented to the Royal Society, Hooke said he had given Newton
2821-473: The Dutch scientist Antonie van Leeuwenhoek went on to develop increased magnification and so reveal protozoa , blood cells and spermatozoa . Micrographia also contains Hooke's, or perhaps Boyle's and Hooke's, ideas on combustion. Hooke's experiments led him to conclude combustion involves a component of air, a statement with which modern scientists would agree but that was not understood widely, if at all, in
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2912-605: The Gresham Special Lecture, the Annual Lord Mayor's Event, and the Gray's Inn Reading. The college is a registered charity under English law. The seven original Gresham College professorships that date back to the origins of the college are: These original endowed chairs reflect the curriculum of the medieval university (the trivium and quadrivium ); but as a place for the public and frequent voicing of new ideas,
3003-698: The Motion of the Earth by Observations (published 1679), said gravitation applies to "all celestial bodies" and restated these three propositions. Hooke's statements up to 1674 make no mention, however, that an inverse square law applies or might apply to these attractions. His model of gravitation was also not yet universal, though it approached universality more closely than previous hypotheses. Hooke did not provide accompanying evidence or mathematical demonstration; he stated in 1674: "Now what these several degrees [of gravitational attraction] are I have not yet experimentally verified", indicating he did not yet know what law
3094-427: The Royal Society's correspondence; Hooke therefore wanted to hear from members about their research or their views about the research of others. Hooke asked Newton's opinions about various matters. Among other items, Hooke mentioned "compounding the celestial motions of the planets of a direct motion by the tangent and an attractive motion towards the central body"; his "hypothesis of the lawes or causes of springinesse";
3185-509: The Society could scarcely have survived, or, at least, would have developed in a quite different way. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that he was, historically, the creator of the Royal Society. The Royal Society for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge by Experiment was founded in 1660 and given its Royal Charter in July 1662. On 5 November 1661, Robert Moray proposed the appointment of
3276-614: The centuries, it has served as a school for law students, a venue for qualified attorneys, and residential chambers. The Inn suffered damage during the Gordon Riots in 1780, but was compensated. It was purchased by the Mercers' Company in the late 19th century and served as the Mercers' School premises until 1959. The buildings include a hall with 18th-century chambers and reception rooms, featuring notable architectural elements like 15th-century wooden bays, 16th-century linen fold wood panelling, and
3367-448: The cittye of London knighte, concerninge all my mannors, landes, tenementes, and hereditamentes, mentioned and conteyned in one quadripartite indenture, made betweene me the said Sir Thomas Gresham and dame Anne my wife on the one partye, and Phillippe Scudamore gent. and Thomas Celey on thother partie, dated the 20 day of May, in the seaventeenth yere of the raigne of our soveraigne lady queene Elizabeth.... AND I will and dispose, that ...
3458-646: The college played an important role in the Enlightenment and in the formation of the Royal Society . Early distinguished Gresham College professors included Christopher Wren , who lectured on astronomy in the 17th century, and Robert Hooke , who was Professor of Geometry from 1665 until 1704. The geometrician is to read as followeth, every Trinity term arithmetique, in Michaelmas and Hilary terms theoretical geometry, in Easter term practical geometry. The astronomy reader
3549-607: The construction in 1842 of its own buildings in Gresham Street EC2. Gresham College did not become part of the University of London on the founding of the university in the 19th century, although a close association between the college and the university persisted for many years. In 1892 the foundation of a 'Gresham University' in London was proposed in Parliament, intended to be a "Teaching University worthy of this Metropolis." This
3640-518: The damage. By the 17th century, qualified attorneys were allowed to practise from Inns of Chancery as well as Inns of Court. By 1830, it had effectively become a set of residential chambers. In 1888, the link to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln was broken and soon it was purchased by the Mercers' Company , serving as premises for the Mercers' School until 1959. It has been used as a venue for lectures by Gresham College since 1991. The buildings consist of
3731-440: The deaths of both Newton and Hooke, Alexis Clairaut , mathematical astronomer eminent in his own right in the field of gravitational studies, reviewed Hooke's published work on gravitation. According to Stephen Peter Rigaud , Clairaut wrote: "The example of Hooke and that of Kepler [serves] to show what a distance there is between a truth that is glimpsed and a truth that is demonstrated". I. Bernard Cohen said: "Hooke's claim to
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3822-505: The diversion he gave me from my other studies to think on these things & for his dogmaticalness in writing as if he had found the motion in the Ellipsis, which inclined me to try it. Whilst Newton was primarily a pioneer in mathematical analysis and its applications, and optical experimentation, Hooke was a creative experimenter of such great range who left some of his ideas, such as those about gravitation, undeveloped. In 1759, decades after
3913-737: The earliest-recorded observation of a microorganism, the microfungus Mucor . Hooke coined the term " cell ", suggesting a resemblance between plant structures and honeycomb cells. The hand-crafted, leather-and-gold-tooled microscope he designed and used to make the observations for Micrographia , which Christopher Cock made for him in London, is on display at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Maryland . Hooke's work developed from that of Henry Power , who published his microscopy work in Experimental Philosophy (1663); in turn,
4004-482: The falling body could experimentally reveal the Earth's motion by its direction of deviation from the vertical but Hooke went on hypothetically to consider how its motion could continue if the solid Earth had not been in the way, on a spiral path to the centre. Hooke disagreed with Newton's idea of the body's continuing motion. A further short correspondence developed; towards the end of it, writing on 6 January 1680 to Newton, Hooke communicated his "supposition ... that
4095-465: The first practical Gregorian telescope that used a silvered glass mirror. In 1660, Hooke discovered the law of elasticity that bears his name and describes the linear variation of tension with extension in an elastic spring. Hooke first described this discovery in an anagram "ceiiinosssttuv", whose solution he published in 1678 as Ut tensio, sic vis ("As the extension, so the force"). His work on elasticity culminated in his development of
4186-471: The formation of these craters and concluded their existence meant the Moon must have its own gravity, a radical departure from the contemporaneous Aristotelian celestial model . He also was an early observer of the rings of Saturn , and discovered one of the first-observed double-star systems Gamma Arietis in 1664. To achieve these discoveries, Hooke needed better instruments than those that were available at
4277-446: The gravitation might follow; and about his whole proposal, he said: "This I only hint at present ... having my self many other things in hand which I would first compleat, and therefore cannot so well attend it" (i.e. "prosecuting this Inquiry"). In November 1679, Hooke initiated a notable exchange of letters with Newton that was published in 1960. Hooke's ostensible purpose was to tell Newton he (Hooke) had been appointed to manage
4368-453: The history of life on Earth and, despite the objections of contemporary naturalists like John Ray – who found the concept of extinction theologically unacceptable – that in some cases they might represent species that had become extinct through some geological disaster. In a series of lectures in 1668, Hooke proposed the then-heretical idea the Earth's surface had been formed by volcanoes and earthquakes, and that
4459-428: The invention was, by Hooke's death, in constant use among clock makers. Hooke announced he conceived a way to build a marine chronometer to determine longitude. and with the help of Boyle and others, he attempted to patent it. In the process, Hooke demonstrated a pocket-watch of his own devising that was fitted with a coil spring attached to the arbour of the balance. Hooke's refusal to accept an escape clause in
4550-472: The inverse-square law has masked Newton's far more fundamental debt to him, the analysis of curvilinear orbital motion. In asking for too much credit, Hooke effectively denied to himself the credit due him for a seminal idea". Hooke made important contributions to the science of timekeeping and was intimately involved in the advances of his time; these included refinement of the pendulum as a better regulator for clocks, increased precision of clock mechanisms and
4641-473: The last year of his life. A chest containing £8,000 in money and gold was found in his room at Gresham College . His library contained over 3,000 books in Latin, French, Italian and English. Although he had talked of leaving a generous bequest to the Royal Society, which would have given his name to a library, laboratory and lectures, no will was found and the money passed to a cousin named Elizabeth Stephens. Hooke
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#17328516824154732-522: The latter were responsible for shell fossils being found far above sea level. In 1835, Charles Lyell , the Scottish geologist and associate of Charles Darwin , wrote of Hooke in Principles of Geology : "His treatise ... is the most philosophical production of that age, in regard to the causes of former changes in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of nature". Hooke's scientific model of human memory
4823-517: The lectures of law, phissicke, and rethoricke, within myne nowe dwellinge house in the parrishe of St. Hellyns in Bishopesgate streete and St. Peters the pore, in the said cittye of London ... the somme of one hundred and fifty poundes of lawfull money of England, in manner and forme followinge, viz. to every of the said readers for the tyme beinge the somme of fiftye poundes, for theire sallaries and stipendes, mete for three sufficiently learned to reade
4914-497: The love of his life, and he was devastated when she died in 1687. Inwood also mentions "The age difference between him and Grace was commonplace and would not have upset his contemporaries as it does us". The incestous relationship would nevertheless have been frowned upon and tried by an ecclesiastical court had it been discovered, it was not however a capital felony after 1660. Since childhood, Hooke suffered from migraine , tinnitus , dizziness and bouts of insomnia ; he also had
5005-450: The meeting of the Pension 15 May 1626 it was said that gentlemen coming from Barnard or Staple's Inn "and crave the benefit of the fine of 43 pounds and 4 shillings upon their admittance shall be admitted of the third table and paye but 43 pounds and 4 shillings in that respect, otherwise to paye foure poundes as others do notwithstanding they be of Barnards Inne or Staple Inne." Barnard's Inn
5096-507: The most ingenious book that ever I read in my life". One of the observations in Micrographia is of fossil wood , the microscopic structure of which Hooke compared to that of ordinary wood. This led him to conclude that fossilised objects like petrified wood and fossil shells such as ammonites were the remains of living things that had been soaked in mineral-laden petrifying water. He believed that such fossils provided reliable clues about
5187-556: The motion of a spherical pendulum and of a ball in a hollow cone, to demonstrate central force due to gravity, and a hanging chain net with point loads to provide the optimum shape for a dome with heavy cross on top. Despite continuing reports to the contrary, Hooke did not influence Thomas Newcomen 's invention of the steam engine ; this myth, which originated in an article in the third edition of " Encyclopædia Britannica ", has been found to be mistaken. While many of Hooke's contemporaries, such as Isaac Newton, believed in aether as
5278-440: The movement of pendulums up to 200 ft long (61 m). His biographer Margaret 'Espinasse described him as England's first meteorologist , in her description of his essay Method for making a history of the weather . (Hooke specifies that a thermometer, a hygrometer , a wind gauge and a record sheet be used for proper weather records. ) In May 1664, using a 12 ft (3.7 m) refracting telescope , Hooke observed
5369-437: The occupation of all my said mansion house, gardeins, and of all other thappurtenaunces, for them and every of them there to inhabite, study, and daylie to reade the said severall lectures. And my will is, that none shall be chossen to reade any of the said lectures, so longe as he shall be married, nor be suffered to reade any of the said lectures after that he shalbe married, neither shall receave any fee or stipend appointed for
5460-563: The only surviving crown posts in Greater London. Since 1991, the Inn has been home to Gresham College, hosting public lectures. Barnard's Inn dates back at least to the mid-thirteenth century – it was recorded as part of the estate of Sir Adam de Basing (Adam de Baysing), one time Lord Mayor of London . It passed on to John Mackworth, the Dean of Lincoln , who in turn passed it on to the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln on his death in 1451. Three years later, it
5551-488: The physical scientist Robert Boyle . Hooke built the vacuum pumps that were used in Boyle's experiments on gas law and also conducted experiments. In 1664, Hooke identified the rotations of Mars and Jupiter . Hooke's 1665 book Micrographia , in which he coined the term cell , encouraged microscopic investigations. Investigating optics – specifically light refraction – Hooke inferred
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#17328516824155642-433: The pore in the cittye of London ... the somme of two hundred pounds of lawfull money of England, in manner and forme followinge, viz. to every of the said readers for the tyme beinge the somme of fifty pounds of lawfull money of England yerely, for theire sallaries and stipendes, mete for foure sufficiently learned to read the said lectures; the same stipendes and sallaries, and every of them, to be paid at two usuall tearmes in
5733-406: The possibility a vacuum might exist despite Aristotle 's maxim " Nature abhors a vacuum " had just begun to be considered . Hooke developed an air pump for Boyle's experiments rather than use Ralph Greatorex 's pump, which Hooke considered as "too gross to perform any great matter". Hooke's engine enabled the development of the eponymous law that was subsequently attributed to Boyle; Hooke had
5824-688: The proposed exclusive contract for the use of this idea resulted in its abandonment. Hooke developed the principle of the balance spring independently of Huygens and at least five years beforehand. Huygens published his own work in Journal de Scavans in February 1675 and built the first functioning watch to use a balance spring. In 1663 and 1664, Hooke made his microscopic, and some astronomic, observations, which he collated in Micrographia in 1665. His book, which describes observations with microscopes and telescopes, as well as original work in biology, contains
5915-482: The readinge of the said lectures.... IN WITNES whereof I the said Sir Thomas Gresham have written this will all with myne owne hand, and to each of the eight leaves have subscribed my name ; and to a labell fixed there unto all the eight leaves have setto my seal with the grasshopper, the 5 day of July, in the seventeenth yere of the raigne of our soveraigne lady queene Elizabeth, and in the yere of our Lord God, ann. 1575. Witnesses to this last will and testament of
6006-559: The rental income from shops sited around the Royal Exchange. The early success of the college led to the incorporation of the Royal Society in 1660, which pursued its activities at the college in Bishopsgate before moving to its own premises in Crane Court in 1710. Gresham College was mentioned "particularly and academically" alongside the Inns of Court and other colleges in London as part of
6097-466: The rivalry between Hooke and Newton. In geology and palaeontology , Hooke originated the theory of a terraqueous globe, thus disputing the Biblical view of the Earth's age; he also hypothesised the extinction of species, and argued hills and mountains had become elevated by geological processes. By identifying fossils of extinct species, Hooke presaged the theory of biological evolution . Much of what
6188-448: The said Sir Thomas Gresham the persons whose names be subscribed, 51°31′03″N 0°06′35″W / 51.5175°N 0.1098°W / 51.5175; -0.1098 Barnard%27s Inn Barnard's Inn is a former Inn of Chancery in Holborn , London. It is now the home of Gresham College , an institution of higher learning established in 1597 that hosts public lectures. Over
6279-507: The said lectures, at two usuall tearmes in the yere, that is to say, at the feast of thannunciation of the blessed Virgin Marye and of St. Mighell the Archangell, by even portions to be paid.... AND ... shall permitte and suffer seaven persons, by them from tyme to tyme to be elected and appointed in manner and forme aforesaid, meete and sufficiently learned to reade the said seaven lectures, to have
6370-463: The said maior and corporation of the said cittye [London] ... shall give and distribute to and for the sustentation, mayntenaunce, and findinge foure persons from tyme to tyme to be chosen, nominated, and appointed by the said maior and cominalty and cittezens and theire successors, mete to read the lectures of divynitye, astronomy, musicke, and geometry, within myne owne dwellinge house in the parishe of St. Hellynes in Bishopsgate streete and St. Peeters
6461-493: The servants who ran his home – his niece Grace Hooke and his cousin Tom Giles lived with him for some years as children. Hooke never married. According to his diary, Hooke had a sexual relationship with his niece Grace, after she had turned 16. Grace was in his custody since the age of 10. He also had sexual relations with several maids and housekeepers. Hooke's biographer Stephen Inwood considers Grace to have been
6552-467: The seventeenth century. He also concluded respiration and combustion involve a specific and limited component of air. According to Partington, if "Hooke had continued his experiments on combustion, it is probable that he would have discovered oxygen". Samuel Pepys wrote of the book in his diary on 21 January 16 64 / 65 : "Before I went to bed I sat up till two o’clock in my chamber reading of Mr. Hooke's Microscopicall Observations,
6643-446: The square of distance' was rather common and had been advanced by a number of different people for different reasons". In the 1660s, Newton had shown for planetary motion under a circular assumption, force in the radial direction had an inverse-square relation with distance from the centre. Newton, who in May 1686 was presented with Hooke's claim to priority on the inverse square law, denied he
6734-450: The star Gamma Draconis and chose the method of parallax determination. In 1669, after several months of observing, Hooke believed the desired result had been achieved. It is now known his equipment was far too imprecise to obtain an accurate measurement. Hooke's Micrographia contains illustrations of the Pleiades star cluster and lunar craters . He conducted experiments to investigate
6825-817: The supposition, could only guess it was approximately valid "at great distances from the centre". Newton did accept and acknowledge, in all editions of the Principia , Hooke and others had separately appreciated the inverse square law in the solar system. Newton acknowledged Wren, Hooke and Halley in this connection in his "Scholium to Proposition 4" in Book 1. In a letter to Halley, Newton also acknowledged his correspondence with Hooke in 1679–1680 had reawakened his dormant interest in astronomical matters but that did not mean, according to Newton, Hooke had told Newton anything new or original. Newton wrote: Yet am I not beholden to him for any light into that business ... but only for
6916-455: The time. Accordingly, he invented three new mechanisms: the Hooke joint , a sophisticated universal joint that allowed his instruments to smoothly follow the apparent motion of the observed body; the first clockwork drive to automate the process; and a micrometer screw that allowed him to achieve a precision of ten seconds of arc . Hooke was dissatisfied with refracting telescopes so he built
7007-432: The type in which he was involved seem almost to be the rule rather than the exception. And Hooke's reaction to such controversy involving his own discoveries and inventions seems mild in comparison to the behaviour of some of his contemporaries". The publication of Hooke's diary in 1935 revealed previously unknown details about his social and familial relationships. His biographer Margaret 'Espinasse said: "the picture which
7098-415: The use of the balance spring to improve the timekeeping of watches. Galileo had observed the regularity of a pendulum and Huygens first incorporated it in a clock; in 1668, Hooke demonstrated his new device to keep a pendulum swinging regularly in unsteady conditions. His invention of a tooth-cutting machine enabled a substantial improvement in the accuracy and precision of timepieces. Waller reported
7189-497: The yere yerely, that is to say, at the feastes of thannunciation of St. Mary the Virgin and of St. Mighell tharchangell, by even portions to be paid.... AND ... that they and theire successors every yere yerely shall give, and pay, and distribute to and for the findinge, sustentation and maynetenaunce of three persons, by them the said wardeins and cominalty and theire successors from tyme to tyme to be chossen and appointed, meete to reade
7280-520: Was appointed its Joint Secretary. Although John Aubrey described Hooke as a person of "great virtue and goodness". much has been written about the unpleasant side of Hooke's personality. According to his first biographer Richard Waller, Hooke was "in person, but despicable", and "melancholy, mistrustful, and jealous". Waller's comments influenced other writers for more than 200 years such that many books and articles – especially biographies of Isaac Newton – portray Hooke as
7371-479: Was badly damaged during the Gordon Riots in 1780. An adjacent distillery, owned by a Roman Catholic , Mr Langdale (who escaped), was set alight by rioters. The Hall and other buildings were damaged and one of the officers of the Inn witnessed a "sturdy fellow" pumping up gin from the cellar which he proceeded to sell at a penny a mug to the thirsty onlookers of the fire. The Inn received £3,200 in compensation for
7462-634: Was born in 1635 in Freshwater, Isle of Wight , to Cecily Gyles and the Anglican priest John Hooke, who was the curate of All Saints' Church, Freshwater . Robert was the youngest, by seven years, of four siblings (two boys and two girls); he was frail and not expected to live. Although his father gave him some instruction in English, (Latin) Grammar and Divinity , Robert's education was largely neglected. Left to his own devices, he made little mechanical toys; seeing
7553-421: Was buried at St Helen's Church, Bishopsgate , in the City of London but the precise location of his grave is unknown. Hooke's role at the Royal Society was to demonstrate experiments from his own methods or at the suggestion of members. Among his earliest demonstrations were discussions of the nature of air and the implosion of glass bubbles that had been sealed with enclosed hot air. He also demonstrated that
7644-436: Was confirmed to the office and on 11 January 1665, he was named Curator by Office for life with an annual salary of £80, which consisting of £30 from the Society and Cutler's £50 annuity. In June 1663, Hooke was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). On 20 March 1665, he was also appointed Gresham Professor of Geometry . On 13 September 1667, Hooke became acting Secretary of the Society and on 19 December 1677, he
7735-592: Was established as an Inn of Chancery – these were schools for law students before they passed on to an Inn of Court . Barnard's Inn was one of two Inns of Chancery linked to Gray's Inn , the other being Staple Inn . Members of Gray's Inn were appointed readers to the Barnard or Staple Inn. For example, in the meeting of the Pension of Gray's Inn, 19 November 1617, it was stated: "Mr. William Denny chosen Reader of Barnard's Inn." Members of Barnard or Staple's Inn had to pay four pounds for being admitted to Gray's Inn. Hence, at
7826-448: Was ever too much subject", and he became a pupil at Westminster School , living with its master Richard Busby . Hooke quickly mastered Latin, Greek and Euclid's Elements ; he also learnt to play the organ and began his lifelong study of mechanics. He remained an accomplished draughtsman, as he was later to demonstrate in his drawings that illustrate the work of Robert Boyle and Hooke's own Micrographia . In 1653, Hooke secured
7917-480: Was more sympathetic but still described Hooke as "difficult", "suspicious" and "irritable". In October 1675, the Council of the Royal Society considered a motion to expel Hooke because of an attack he made on Christiaan Huygens over scientific priority in watch design but it did not pass. According to Hooke's biographer Ellen Drake: if one studies the intellectual milieu of the time, the controversies and rivalries of
8008-646: Was one of the first of its kind. In a 1682 lecture to the Royal Society, Hooke proposed a mechanical analogue model of human memory that bore little resemblance to the mainly philosophical models of earlier writers. This model addressed the components of encoding, memory capacity, repetition, retrieval, and forgetting – some with surprisingly modern accuracy. According to psychology professor Douglas Hintzman, Hooke's model's most-interesting points are that it allows for attention and other top-down influences on encoding; it uses resonance to implement parallel, cue-dependent retrieval; it explains memory for recency; it offers
8099-583: Was opposed by the Victoria University on the grounds that its medical faculty would dominate medical teaching in the country to the detriment of Manchester. The proposed university may just have borrowed the name from the college. Since 1991, the college has operated at Barnard's Inn Hall , Holborn EC1. Since 2000, the college regularly invites visiting speakers to deliver lectures on topics outside its usual range, and it also hosts occasional seminars and conferences. The college provides over 140 lectures
8190-464: Was removed, renovated and replaced and two fireplaces of Tudor design were installed. The windows were reglazed, releaded and reframed. The windows contain the armorial bearings of Principals of Barnard's Inn: The hall was renovated again in 1990, adding facilities for meetings and functions, ready to become the home of Gresham College . The hero of Charles Dickens 's novel Great Expectations , Pip , lodged in Barnard's Inn with Herbert Pocket for
8281-509: Was to be credited as author of the idea, giving reasons including the citation of prior work by others. Newton also said that, even if he had first heard of the inverse square proportion from Hooke (which Newton said he had not), he would still have some rights to it because of his mathematical developments and demonstrations. These, he said, enabled observations to be relied upon as evidence of its accuracy while according to Newton, Hooke, without mathematical demonstrations and evidence in favour of
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