128 History of Luminescence 



group. At first an intimate laboratory assistant to Boyle (from 1655- 

 1662) , and the man who built his air pump (in 1658) , Hooke was 

 responsible for many of Boyle's experiments. He later became pro- 

 fessor of geometry in Gresham College and city surveyor of London, 

 curator and then secretary of the Royal Society. He was a versatile 

 and highly accomplished scientist in his own right— his theory of 

 combustion approached that of Lavoisier— a man occupied with an 

 extraordinary number of varied interests. 



From the very beginning of the Royal Society it was the custom 

 to suggest subjects and experiments for the next meeting. After 

 Boyle had presented his observations on shining wood and fish it 

 was ordered that these finds be recorded, and Robert Hooke, as 

 Curator in charge of experiments, was directed to perform Boyle's 

 experiments before the Society as soon as luminescent wood or fish 

 could be obtained. ^° Apparently none was found, for other experi- 

 ments were shown at subsequent meetings. 



We might expect that Hooke, as the author of Micrographia: or 

 some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magni- 

 fying glasses,^^ with observations and inquiries therupon (London, 

 1665) , would have discovered that the light of shining wood was 

 due to a fungus growth ^^ on the wood or the phosphorescence of 

 sea water to minute animals, but such was not the case. However, 

 Hooke used various luminescences to support his idea that light 

 is a vibratory motion. In " Observ. IX. Of fantastical colours," 

 dealing with the colors of muscovy glass and thin plates, Hooke 

 made some revealing statements: 



First, that all kind of fiery burning Bodies have their parts in motion, 

 I think will be very easily granted me. That the spark struck from a 

 Flint and Steel is in a rapid agitation, I have elsewhere made probable. 

 And that the Parts of rotten Wood, rotten FisJi, and the like are also in 

 motion, I think, will as easily be conceded by those, who consider, that 

 those parts never begin to Shine till the Bodies be in a State of putre- 



so Thomas Birch (1 705- 1 766) , History of the Royal Society of London. 4 v. 2:225 

 and 235, 1756. 



^^ Henry Power (1623-1668) , a Doctor of Physik, had observed with a microscope 

 many of the same things as Hooke, and at about the same time. He had examined 

 the minute spherules left from sparks when steel strikes flint (he referred to Hooke's 

 observation of these globules) , as well as " a small atom of quicksilver " (which 

 reflected objects on every side) , and the glowworm or glasworm (minutely described; 

 see Chapter XVI) . Power's work was entitled Experimental philosophy in three books: 

 containing new experiments microscopical, mercurial, magnetical . . . illustration of 

 the now famous atomical hypothesis, London, published in 1664, although the fifty- 

 one microscopical observations were written up in August, 1661. 



^- Hooke gave an excellent figure of blue mould, and realized moss or mould " to 

 be a more simple and uncompounded type of vegetation, which is set a moving by 

 the putrefactive and fermentative heat, joyn'd with that of the ambient aerial, . . ." 



