STMC Robert (Hooke Robert)

(1635-1703)
Born July 18, 1635 in Freshuotere (county of Isle of Wight) in the family priest of the local church. For some time he worked with renowned artist P. Lilly, attended Westminster School. In 1653 entered Christ Church College, Oxford University, where he became assistant to Boyle and worked with him on creating an air pump. In 1662 he was appointed curator of experiments at the newly founded Royal Society, and in 1677-1683 served as Secretary of the society; from 1665 - Professor, University of London.
Terms of Hooke's scientific interests was very broad: the heat, elasticity, optics, celestial mechanics. He owns numerous inventions. In 1659 Hooke, together with R. Boyle improved air pump Guericke. Around 1660, along with H. Huygens found a reference point for the scale of the thermometer - the temperature of melting ice and boiling water

. In 1665, Hooke made important improvements in the design of the microscope and use it to undertake studies, . in particular saw the thin layers (bubbles, . oil films) in the light beam, . studied the structure of plants and the smallest details of living organisms, . introduced the concept of their cellular structure,
. In this paper micrograph (Micrographia, 1665) described the cells of elder, fennel, carrots, brought images of very small objects, such as the eye flies, mosquitoes and their larvae, described in detail the cellular structure of cork-wing bees, mold, moss. In the same paper described his theory of colors, explained the color of thin layers of reflection of light from their upper and lower boundaries. Hooke was an opponent of the corpuscular theory of light, Newton's hypothesis about the nature of the transverse light waves; felt the warmth of the result of motion of particles of matter. In 1674 formulated the idea of gravitation, in 1680, anticipating Newton, came to the conclusion that the gravitational force is inversely proportional to the square of the distance and that all the planets should move in elliptical orbits. Hooke died in London on March 3, 1703.