Robert Hooke invented the balance spring for
watches
and formulated the physical principle on which it depends.
This principle is also known as the law of
elasticity.
The force you apply to compress or extend a
spring
is proportional to the distance you move it.
Hooke’s
interests
Robert Hooke was Surveyor to the City of
London,
and chief assistant to Christopher Wren.
He was Curator of Experiments for forty years
for the Royal Society of London
so was responsible for demonstrating
and given opportunity for extending
the ideas of other scientists.
His interests and expertise ranged widely—
astronomy, physics, optics, mechanics, horology,
surveying, architecture, acoustics, geology,
paleontology, microscopy, biology, and
chemistry.
Hooke created a theory of gravity and planetary
motion,
tried to measure the distance to a star using
parallax,
drew the rings of Saturn and craters on the
moon,
discovered one of the first observed double-star
systems,
wrote about earthquakes and the deformation of
rock,
understood that fossils derived from once-living
plants and animals,
helped design the dome of Saint Paul’s
Cathedral,
discovered nodal patterns of vibrations on glass
plates,
invented the anchor escapement and the balance
spring,
discovered that plants have cells,
improved the vacuum pump,
understood that combustion requires a component
in air,
and developed a complete and modern theory of
memory.
The balance spring
Christiaan Huygens reinvented the balance spring
fifteen years after Hooke.
Hooke had shelved his work on clocks after finding
he couldn’t make enough money for it.
Hooke suggested that Newton look at ellipses
for the motions of the planets
but probably didn’t realize, as Newton did,
the mathematical simplicity of gravity.
In this age, science was too much a hobby
of wealthy men.
Hooke was a working man who could not afford
to give his ideas away.
Robert Hooke deserves a place in this book for his invention
of the balance spring in a watch and the anchor escapment, as well
as for his formulation of the law of elasticity. Elsewhere, we
give him credit for his discovery of the cell.
Robert Hooke deserves a place in this book for his invention of the balance spring in a watch and the anchor escapment, as well as for his formulation of the law of elasticity. Elsewhere, we give him credit for his discovery of the cell.
See also in The book of science:
Readings on wikipedia: