The Man Who Knew Too Much: The strange inventive life of Robert Hooke, 1635-1703

271 Pages·2002·14.475 MB·English

by  Stephen Inwood

STEPH EN INW O O D
T he Man W ho
Also by Stephen Inwood
A HISTORY OF LONDON Knew Too Much
THE STRANGE AND INVENTIVE LIFE
OF ROBERT HOOKE
1635-1703
MACMILLAN
First published 2002 by Macmillan
an imprint of Pan Macmillan Ltd
Pan Macmillan, 20 New Wharf Road, London N1 9RR
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Copyright © Stephen Inwood 2002
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Acknowledgements
As Isaac Newton said in a famous letter to Robert Hooke, most of what
each of us achieves is built upon the work of others. Without the
research of many scholars on the history of science and the early years
of the Royal Society, it would have been quite impossible for me to have
written this book, I have acknowledged my debts to them in my notes
and bibliography. I am grateful to the Royal Society for allowing me to
use their library, and to the inter-library loans service at Thames Valley
University, my ex-employer, for finding so many books and articles for
me. Ursula Carlyle, the archivist of the Mercers’ Company, allowed me
to use the material on Hooke and Gresham College which is held in the
Company’s archives. I have received helpful advice from Michael Wright,
Curator of Mechanical Engineering at the Science Museum, on Hooke’s
wheel-cutting engine, and from Dr Anthony Geraghty of the Glasgow
School of Art, on Hooke’s role in building the City churches. My
brother, Michael Inwood, gave me advice on the meaning of some of
Hooke’s Latin phrases, my sister, lacqueline Inwood, helped me to
explore his birthplace on the Isle of Wight, and my mother, Jessie
Inwood, found me a picture of Freshwater.
After the publication of A History of London in 1998 I was lucky
enough to find - or to be found by - a sympathetic and resourceful
literary agent, David Godwin, who showed me how to leap painlessly
from the academic to the literary world when events forced that choice
upon me. At Macmillan, I would like to thank Tanya Stobbs, for her
critical and intelligent reading of the original manuscript; Nicholas Blake,
for discovering the ambiguities and inconsistencies in my text however
well I tried to hide them, and for giving me the benefit of his own
knowledge, especially of maritime matters; Jane Henderson, for the
index; and Jeremy Trevathan and his assistant, Stuart Evers.
Acknowledgements
My wife and sons were tolerant about sharing their house with a
seventeenth-century scientist for the past three years, though they are
probably relieved that he has at last started packing his bags, Tom, Joe
and Benji put up with my Hooke anecdotes, and at least pretended to be
interested when I asked them, for the umpteenth time, ‘Guess who
Preface
invented that?’ Anne-Marie, my wife, has been unfailingly supportive, a
pleasure to live with in every way. She never showed the slightest doubt
about my ability to make a success of what I had undertaken, and never
told rne that I should get a proper job.
In the 1990s, when I was working on A History of London, I came across
an obscure and fascinating character who was so inventive, able and
energetic that he had exerted a profound influence over three distinct
aspects of London’s development in the later seventeenth century. He
led the way in replanning and rebuilding the City after the fire of 1666,
he developed technology that promoted the growth of the important
London watch and scientific instrument industry, and helped to turn the
Royal Society from an aristocratic club into a permanent feature of
London’s intellectual life. The fact that this man, Robert Hooke, was
depicted (when he was mentioned at all) as an embittered and trouble­
some individual who made it his business to quarrel with greater and
nobler scientists (especially Isaac Newton), and to claim credit for their
work, drove me to find out more about him. Isaac Asimov summarizes
the standard opinion of Hooke, a ‘nasty, argumentative individual, anti­
social, miserly, and quarrelsome’, who took a ‘malignant pleasure in
controversy’, and drove Newton to a nervous breakdown. Could Hooke
have been the malicious pantomime character, with a twisted back and a
personality to match, that appeared in popular reference books and
general works on the history of science?
As I looked a little further into Hooke’s life I discovered that he was
not really a forgotten figure. Many scholars, attracted by Hooke’s
immense versatility, and by the sense that he has not been dealt with
fairly by standard historical accounts, have been working on Hooke’s
scientific and mechanical achievements, producing scholarly articles,
conference papers, doctoral theses and annotated editions of his writings.
Some of them, perhaps taking their mission to resurrect Hooke’s name
and reputation too literally, were even trying to find Hooke’s body,
which was reburied in an unmarked grave in the nineteenth century.
Preface
Preface xi
and to reinter it with appropriate ceremony in a more fitting place in
Hooke’s real life all these activities were crowded together into every
time for the tercentenary of his death in 2003. But specialists do not
week, and I thought it was important to capture Hooke’s frenetically
often write biographies, and there had been no general account of
busy life as he lived it day by day, or at least month by month. I also
Hooke’s life, encompassing his science, his building, and his personal
wanted to follow Hooke’s life through its full extent, not stopping when
life, since Margaret ’Espinasse’s book in 1956.
he ceased to be a central figure in the scientific world. What happens to
Hooke was a man of ideas, a thinker who was at the forefront of the
us in our old age is as important as anything else in our lives, so I have
scientific revolution of the later seventeenth century. His life cannot be done my best to go with Hooke into his final years, and to be with him
properly appreciated if it is presented only as a series of incidents,
at his death bed.
scandals, or disputes with rival scientists. We have to look at and Hooke lived his final years with the growing fear that his scientific
understand his ideas, his inventions, the principles that guided his work. work would be forgotten, and as far as the non-academic world is
Sometimes this takes a little concentration, but Hooke’s science was concerned this is exactly what happened. Now, three hundred years after
largely intuitive, experimental, and non-mathematical, and it is not so his death, it is time for this difficult, ugly, tireless and brilliant man to
difficult for non-scientists to understand. I hope that readers will find be remembered again.
that the pleasure of watching Hooke and his colleagues grappling with
many of the great questions that interested scientists for the next 200
A Note on Money
years will repay a little effort. For Hooke stood right in the middle of the
wonderful world of Restoration science, in which scholars were rebuild­ In the seventeenth century the pound sterling was divided into twenty
ing their understanding of the universe and the natural world after the shillings (shortened to s.), and a shilling was divided into twelve pennies,
collapse of the old Greek and medieval certainties. He worked alongside or pence (shortened to d.). So an amount might be expressed as
(and sometimes in conflict with) some of the greatest figures in the £2 10s 6d, or £2/10/6d.
modern history of science - Huygens, Boyle, Wren, Halley, Flamsteed, The value of money in Hooke’s lifetime cannot be converted into
Newton, Leibniz, Hevelius - and left his mark on almost every scientific 2002 values, because prices and wages have grown at different rates, and
and mechanical project of his day. Nothing, from the rotation of planets the prices of various goods and services have changed in different ways.
and the nature of light to the origins of fossils and the life cycle of the Coffee, tea, tobacco and sugar, which were exotic and expensive in
gnat, escaped his attention. Hooke’s day, have become cheap everyday commodities, but a large
Restoration England had many multi-talented citizens, but the house in St James’s Square, which Hooke could have bought for £5,000
diversity of Hooke’s accomplishments was impressive even in his own in the 1670s, would cost several millions today. Bearing these difficulties
time, and would be unthinkable today. As well as making an impor­ in mind, multiplying seventeenth-century sums of money by a hundred
tant contribution in almost every scientific field, Hooke was a notable will give a general indication of their purchasing power in 2002.
scientific artist, a pugnacious controversialist, a brilliant designer of
watches, telescopes, quadrants and scientific instruments of all sorts, a
A Note on Dates
surveyor and urban developer of the first rank, and one of the most
important designers and builders of country mansions, town houses, Until 1752 England used the Julian calendar, which was then ten days
churches, hospitals and monuments of his time. Such a variety of behind the Gregorian calendar adopted in other West European
interests and activities makes for a fascinating life, but not a simple one. countries. Hooke and all his English contemporaries used the ‘old style’
It might have been easier to tackle each area of Hooke’s career in turn - Julian calendar dates, and so have I. In official usage the new year began
Hooke the mechanic, Hooke the architect, Hooke the experimental on 25 March, but most people treated 1 January as the first day of the
scientist, Hooke the coffee-house conversationalist, and so on. But in year. Sometimes dates between 1 January and 24 March were written
xii Preface
with both years (1665/6), but I have given all dates in the modern
manner, with the new year starting on 1 January.
^Science* and ^Natural Philosophy*
Contents
Hooke and his contemporaries used the phrase ‘natural philosophy’
where we might say ‘science’, to denote the study of the material universe
and its laws, and ‘natural philosopher’ instead of the nineteenth-century
term ‘scientist’. I have used the contemporary and modern terms
interchangeably.
List of Illustrations xv
A Chronology of the Life of Robert Hooke xvii
Maps xxvi
1. ‘The History of My Own Life’ (1635-1653) 3
2. The Revolution in Science 12
3. Hooke at Oxford (1653-1662) 18
4. The Royal Society (1660-1664) 25
5. ‘Full of Employment’ (1662- 1664) 38
6. A Secret World Discovered (1665) 61
7. Falling Bodies (1665- 1666) 77
8. ‘London Was, But It Is No More’ (1666- 1667) 91
9. ‘Noble Experiments’ (1666- 1670) 103
10. A New Career (1668- 1675) 130
11. Physicians, Lovers and Friends 143
V Contents
12. Heat and Light (1671-1673) 161
13. Measuring the Heavens (1673-1676) 178
List of Illustrations
14. The Coiled Spring (1674-1675) 191
15. ‘Oldenburg Kindle Cole’ (1675-1676) 222
16. In Two Worlds (1677) 244
Section One
17. Tiny Creatures and Springy Bodies (1677-1678) 257
1. All Saints’ Church, Freshwater.
2. Dr Richard Busby. (© Tactic Table Ltd)
18. ‘A Man of a Strange Unsociable Temper’
3. Dr John Wilkins. (Wellcome Library, London)
(1678-1680) 277
4. Robert Boyle. (© Bettman/Corbis)
5. The first Boyle-Hooke air pump. (Science Photo Library)
19. All Trades (1680) 300 6. Oceanographic instruments. (Science Photo Library)
7. Gresham College.
20. The Empire of the Senses (1681-1682) 312 8. Returning to London after the plague.
9. Hooke’s barometer, refractometer and microscopes.
21. A Curator Again (1682-1684) 333 10. Frozen figures from Micrographia.
11. Mould and mildew.
22. Newton’s Triumph (1684-1686) 352 12. A nettle sting, a wild oat and a hygrometer.
13. The eye of the grey drone fly.
23. The World Turned Upside Down (1687-1688) 368 14. A flea. (Science Photo Library)
15. A London coffee house in 1705.
24. A Revolution and Old Battles (1688-1690) 382 16. Farrington Ward Without and the Fleet Canal. (Guildhall Library,
London)
25. The Fear of Being Forgotten (1690-1693) 404 17. Hooke’s drawing of fossilized shells.
18. Hooke’s vertical indoor telescope, 1699.
26. Hooke’s Last Years (1693-1703) 422 19. The College of Physicians. (Guildhall Library, London)
Notes 445 Section Two
20. The Church of St Edmund the King. (Guildhall Library, London)
Bibliography 471
21. Hooke’s equatorial quadrant and its components.
22. Hooke’s universal joint.
Index 482
23. Hooke’s clock-driven equatorial quadrant.
xvi List of Illustrations
24. A sketch of a circular fly for a marine timekeeper.
25. Thomas Tompion. (Bridgeman Art Library)
26. Sir Christopher Wren. (© Bettman/Corbis)
27. Hooke’s diary, 1 January 1676. A Chronology of
28. The Monument. (Guildhall Library, London)
29. Montagu House, Bloomsbury. the Life of Robert Hooke
30. Bethlem Hospital.
31. Spring scales illustrating Hooke’s Law. (Science Photo Library)
32. Scales and barometers from Hooke’s diary.
33. A comet in 1677.
34. Robert Knox.
35. Ragley Hall. 18 July 1635 Born in Freshwater, Isle of Wight.
36. Haberdashers’ school and almshouses. (Guildhall Library, London)
October 1648 Death of John Hooke, Hooke’s father.
37. A portable drawing box, 1694.
October 1648 Hooke travels to London, and begins an apprenticeship
with the painter Peter Lely.
c. 1649-1653 A student at Westminster School, under the headship of
Dr Busby.
c. 1650 Onset of Hooke’s curvature of the spine.
1652 London’s first coffee house, Pasqua Rosee’s Head, opens.
1653 Hooke goes to Christ Church, Oxford.
c. 1655-6 Hooke joins John Wilkins’ scientific group at Wadham
College as a paid assistant. He works with Christopher Wren, Seth Ward,
and others.
c. 1657 Hooke starts work as Robert Boyle’s paid assistant.
c. 1658 Hooke makes a working air pump, enabling Boyle and Hooke
to conduct many experiments on vacuums, air pressure and combustion.
1658 Hooke later claimed to have invented the spring-regulated watch
at this time.
May 1660 Restoration of Charles II.
28 November 1660 Royal Society founded, but without a royal charter
until 1662.
1661 Hooke’s first surviving publication, a tract on capillary action.
xviii Chronology Chronology xix
November 1662 Hooke starts working unpaid as a curator of exper­ 23 May 1666 Hooke’s seminal paper on the mechanics of planetary
iments for the Royal Society. Elected a Fellow in June 1663. motion.
December 1662 Experiments on weight at the top of Westminster 2-6 September 1666 Great Fire of London. Wren, Evelyn and Hooke
Abbey. prepare plans for a rebuilt city.
c. 1663-4 Hooke tells Boyle, Moray and Brouncker of his spring- 12 September 1666 Hooke’s reflecting quadrant with micrometer
regulated ‘longitude’ clock, but rejects their proposals and decides to adjustment is ready for demonstration to the Royal Society.
keep its details secret.
October 1666 Hooke nominated as one of the City’s three represen­
tatives on the Commission to survey the ruined City. Formal appoint­
May 1664 Hooke sees a spot on Jupiter, proving that it rotates.
ment as City Surveyor, March 1667.
June 1664 Sir John Cutler offers to fund a £50 pa lectureship on
February 1667 First City Rebuilding Act lays down rules for new
science and trades for Hooke.
streets and houses.
September 1664 Hooke moves into Gresham College.
10 October 1667, May 1668 Hooke, Lower and King show that fresh
1664 Hooke uses the freezing point of water as the standard zero on air, rather than the motion of its lungs, keeps a dog alive.
glass thermometers.
c. 1667-68 Hooke’s lectures on earthquakes develop his ideas on
1664 Hooke conducts unsuccessful trials of the Reeve-Gregory reflect­ fossils and the changing shape of the Earth.
ing telescope.
February 1668 Hooke demonstrates a watch regulated by ‘a little
spring of tempered wire’.
November 1664 Hooke carries out an experiment to show that a dog
could be kept alive by blowing air directly into its lungs.
May to June 1668 Hooke designs a new Royal Society college (not
built).
December 1664 to April 1665 Hooke and Wren study the paths of
two comets. June to December 1668 Hooke’s correspondence with Hevelius over
telescopic sights for quadrants.
11 January 1665 Hooke is formally elected Curator to the Royal
Society, at £30 a year. July to October 1669 Hooke observes Draco, in an attempt to prove
that the Earth moves, and gives a Cutler lecture on this in 1670.
January 1665 Micrographia published.
1670 Hooke is appointed one of Wren’s two assistants in rebuilding
March 1665 Hooke becomes Gresham Professor of Geometry.
fifty-one City churches. Payments start in 1671.
April 1665 Hooke shows his new seventeen-inch quadrant.
November 1670 The Royal Society Council decides to rebuke Hooke
for neglecting his duties.
June 1665 Bubonic plague epidemic begins in London.
December 1670 Royal College of Physicians employs Hooke to design
July 1665 Hooke, Wilkins and Petty move to Durdans, near Epsom.
and build a new college. The work lasts from 1671 to 1679.
January 1666 Plague subsides, and Hooke returns to London.
February to March 1671 Hooke tests his ability to survive in a sealed
March 1666 Hooke establishes the rotation period of Mars. and depressurized cask.
Chronology Chronology xxi
March 1671 Hooke experiments on the effects of vibration on flour. March 1674 Hooke’s first published Cutler Lecture, An Attempt to
Prove the Motion of the Earth.
March 1671 Wren and Hooke start work on the Fleet Canal and
Thames quay. May 1674 Hooke’s collaboration with watch and instrument maker
Thomas Tompion begins.
December 1671 7,000 (of 8,394) City houses have now been rebuilt,
and City life is getting back to normal. September 1674 Hooke starts designs for Montagu House, Blooms­
bury. Building work continues until 1680.
11 January 1672 Royal Society sees Newton’s reflecting telescope, and
Hooke starts work on a better one. December 1674 Hooke publishes Animadversions on the First Part of
the Machina Coelestis of Johannes Hevelius, urging the use of telescopic
February to June 1672 Hooke’s dispute with Newton over the nature
sights and describing his new equatorial quadrant and universal joint.
of light and colour.
His dispute with Hevelius lasts until 1679.
10 March 1672 Hooke’s diary begins.
February 1675 Hooke’s priority dispute with Huygens and Oldenburg
October 1672 Hooke’s work on the Monument begins, and continues over the spring-regulated watch begins. For the rest of the year Hooke
until 1677. and Tompion race to produce a good spring watch.
January 1673 Harry Hunt arrives at Gresham College as Hooke’s July 1675 Hooke helps design the Greenwich Observatory, which was
assistant. later (in 1676-7) equipped with his quadrants.
February to March 1673 Hooke produces a calculating machine to October 1675 Hooke publishes A Description of Helioscopes, an
beat Leibniz’s. account of many of his mechanical achievements. Its postscript gives his
side of the spring watch dispute.
18 March 1673 After four months’ work, Hooke shows that air loses
5 per cent of its volume in combustion. December 1675 to January 1676 Newton’s letters to Oldenburg rekin­
dle the dispute with Hooke over light and colours.
April to June 1673 Hooke and Boyle create gases that do not sustain
combustion. January 1676 Hooke forms a New Philosophical Club.
August 1673 Nell Young leaves Hooke’s employment. January to February 1676 Hooke and Newton exchange conciliatory
letters, including Newton’s ‘shoulders of giants’ compliment.
November 1673 Royal Society meetings return to Gresham College
after six years in Arundel House. February to March 1676 Royal Society Repository moves out of
Hooke’s rooms, into its own gallery.
11 December 1673 Hooke lectures against Hevelius’s observational
methods. May 1676 Shadwell’s play The Virtuoso mocks Hooke and the Royal
Society.
February 1674 Hooke demonstrates the first practical Gregorian
telescope. June 1676 Hooke’s sexual relationship with Grace Hooke begins.
April 1674 Hooke starts work on the Bethlem Royal Hospital (Bed­ September 1676 Pampas published, with a postscript attacking
lam). Work continues until 1676. Oldenburg.