England's Leonardo : Robert Hooke and the seventeenth-century scientific revolution / Allan Chapman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Chapman, Allan, 1946-

Contributor:

Institute of Physics (Great Britain)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hooke, Robert, 1635-1703.

Hooke, Robert.

Scientists--Great Britain--Biography.

Scientists.

Great Britain.

Science--Great Britain--History--17th century.

Science.

History.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

xv, 330 pages, 29 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Bristol ; Philadelphia : Institute of Physics, [2005]

Summary:

Physicists are familiar with Hooke's Law of springs, but few know of his work in other areas, such as combustion microscopy, gravitation, and architecture. England's Leonardo is a biography of Hooke that covers all aspects of his work, from his early life on the Isle of Wight through his time at Oxford University, where he became part of the group that formed the original Fellowship of the Royal Society. The author divides the book according to Hooke's fields of research-Physiology, Engineering, Microscopy, Astronomy, Geology, and Optics-and concludes with a chapter considering Hooke's legacy and his impact on science.

Contents:

1 Early Life: The Prodigy from the Isle of Wight 1

2 Breathing, Burning, and Flying: Hooke's Scientific Apprenticeship 17

3 The Curator of Experiments 34

4 Microscopes and Meteorology 55

5 Hooke and the Astronomers 72

6 Medicine and Physiology 97

7 Surveyor to the City of London 120

8 A World Turned Upside Down: Hooke's Geological Ideas 135

9 A World of Mechanism 153

10 A Realm of Vibration: Of Flight, Spring, Watches and Music 171

11 'A Large Window ...into the Shop of Nature': Hooke and Light 185

12 From Pendulums to Planets: Experiments and the Understanding of Gravity 197

13 Friends, Mistresses, Religion and Politics: Hooke's Inner World 215

14 Death and Historical Legacy 250

Appendix Portraits of Robert Hooke 262.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-318) and index.

ISBN:

0750309873

OCLC:

57380572