Hooke’s Place in the History of Mechanics

Abstract

Looking back into the seventeenth century, we saw the importance of Francis Bacon with respect to the attitude toward natural philosophy held by Hooke and many of his contemporaries. In his own time, Hooke, largely due to his pivotal position as Curator of experiments to the Royal Society of London, held an important place in seventeenth century English intellectual circles. He was renowned as an indefatigable worker and experimenter. Although we did not attempt to set out all of Hooke’s accomplishments and attempted accomplishments in the areas other than his mechanics, much space could be devoted to these other areas. The Curator was incurably curious about everything and anything. His mechanical contrivances and work with the then fledgling microscope made him known on both sides of the Channel.