Robert Hooke (1635-1703)
Words
to know before you read
- Bubonic Plague- bacterial disease carried by fleas of
infected Old English rats. At its worst, it killed two million
people a year. Those that caught the disease had a 90% chance of
dieing from it.
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- Microscope- an instrument used to see objects or parts
of objects, which are too small to be seen with only our eyes.
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The
cover
of Robert Hooke's Micrographia, published in 1665, is shown to the right. In it he
described how to make a microscope like the one he used. Hooke also wrote how a short focus lens is
constructed.
In a flame he draws a thin fiber from Venetian glass and melts it
into a tiny bulb, which is then ground and polished.
Within the publication more than 30 detailed drawings appeared
including the famous one from cork that provided the first documentation
of a single cell. He also examined hair under a microscope and made a note
that some of the hairs were split at the ends. This is possibly the first notation of
split ends.
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Illustration of cork drawn by Robert Hooke
Examples of Hooke's detailed drawings can be seen in the illustration of cork
above and a flea below. It was in his description of cork that he first used the term "cell" even though he did not know how
important his discovery would become. The cell wasn't really
understood until 1839 when scientists
began to discover its importance.
Ceratophyllus faciatus
As it turned out, the flea in this illustration was the carrier of the Bubonic Plague
that was sweeping through Europe at time. However, this was not known by
Hooke. |
