77 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the prevailing experimental fervor, and contributed perhaps more than 

 any of his contemporaries to advance the credit and promote the cul- 

 tivation of science. The tinge of credulity which occasionally colored 

 his inquiries may be excused (in the words of Bacon's apology for cor- 

 ruption) as vitiiim temporis non hominis, and we suppress a smile at 

 his solemn testamentary disposition of an infallible recipe for " multi- 

 plying gold," when we find Newton and Locke the eager recipients of 

 the secret. 



Several members of the " Philosophical or Invisible College " of 

 London finding themselves about this time together at Oxford, their 

 discussions were resumed, and Hooke's singular mechanical skill quick- 

 ly brought him to their notice. Boyle at once attached him to him- 

 self, and, if we are to believe what Anthony Wood tells us,* was glad 

 to improve his foreign acquirements by receiving from the young ser- 

 vitor instruction in Euclid, and some much-needed light on the Carte- 

 sian jxhilosophy. What is more certain is, that Hooke constructed for 

 him an air-pump vastly superior in design to that recently contrived 

 at Magdeburg by Otto Guericke, and differing in no essential particu- 

 lar from that now in use. He further devised thirty different modes 

 of flying, and emulated Archytas in the production of a " Module " 

 (we quote his own words), " which, by the help of springs and wings, 

 raised and sustained itself in the air ; but finding," he adds, " by my 

 own trials, and afterward by calculation, that the muscles of a man's 

 body were not sufficient to do anything considerable of that kind, I 

 applied my mind to contrive a way to make artificial muscles, divers 

 designs whereof I shewed also at the same time to Dr. Wilkins, then 

 Warden of Wadham College, but was in many of my trials frustrated 

 of my expectations." f 



It may be conjectured that the failure of these attempts sufficed to 

 convince the Icarus of Wadham of the impracticability of his project- 

 ed lunar excursion, as well as to divert their author to less ambitious 

 designs. The improvement of timepieces was then looked upon as the 

 shortest road to the solution of the great practical problem of finding 

 the longitude at sea, and in this direction, accordingly, Hooke next 

 turned his thoughts and his experiments. He was rewarded by the 

 discovery of a contrivance for applying springs to regulate the move- 

 ment of watches. For this important invention his friends endeavored 

 to procure him a patent, which he, however, refused, being dissatisfied 

 with the terms proposed ; and it thus remained undivulged, and by 

 many disbelieved in. But when, in 1675, Huygens published, in the 

 " Journal des Savants," his discovery of spiral watch-springs, Hooke 

 indignantly claimed it as his own, incidentally attacking Oldenburg, 

 then Secretary of the Royal Society, with whom he was never on very 

 civil terms. A sharp paper-conflict ensued, Hooke (quite unjustifiably) 



* " Athcnre Oxonienses," vol. iv., p. 628. 



f " The Life of Dr. Robert Hooke," " Posthumous Works," p. iv. 



