Ideas above his station: A social study of hooke's curatorship of experiments

History of Science

Volumn 29, Issue 1, 1991, Pages 1-44

  Pumfrey, Stephen ^a  

^a LANCASTER UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84965761583     PISSN: 00732753     EISSN: 17538564     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/007327539102900101     Document Type: Article

References (82)

1. Shapin S., “Who was Robert Hooke”, in Hunter M. and Schaffer S. (eds), Robert Hooke: New studies (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1990), ch. 9; Hunter M., Establishing the New Science: The experience of the early Royal Society (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1989).
2. Evelyn J., Diary, entry for 19 July 1661: “In which [diving-bell] our curator continued half an hour under water.” Quoted in The Oxford English dictionary (Oxford, 1933), ii, s.v. “Curator”. The event to which Evelyn refers is reported in Birch Thomas, The history of the Royal Society of London for the Improving of Natural Knowledge, from its first rise (4 vols, London, 1756-57), i, 35. Interestingly for the thesis of this article, this first “curator” turns out to have been the Society's humble amanuensis (clerk).
3. Compare the versions of the minutes in Birch, History, i, 124, and Gunther R. T., Early science in Oxford (15 vols, Oxford, 1923-27), vi: The life and work of Robert Hooke (Part I), 76, and his discussion on p. 74. Gunther assumed that Hooke was the Curator (with added capital “C”) from 1662. I have not read the original minute. Conflation of dates occurs in Andrade E., “Robert Hooke”, Proceedings of the Royal Society, ser. A, cci (1950), 439-73. See p. 439. I give the correct chronology below (see ref. 94).
4. Espinasse M., “The decline and fall of Restoration science”, Past and present, xiv (1958), 71-89; her Robert Hooke (London, 1956) gives a grand account of Hooke's golden period and his senescence. The social evolution has been discussed by Mulligan L. and Mulligan G., “Reconstructing Restoration science: Styles of leadership and social composition of the early Royal Society”, Social studies of science, xi, (1981), 327-64.
5. See Hunter M., Science and society in Restoration England (Cambridge, 1981), esp. ch. 2.
6. See Shapin S. and Schaffer S., Leviathan and the air pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the experimental life (Princeton, 1985); Hunter M., The Royal Society and its Fellows 1660-1700: The morphology of an early scientific institution (The British Society for the History of Science Monographs, no. 4; Chalfont St Giles, Bucks, 1982).
7. Another important study in which the importance of Hooke's presence is noted is Bennett J. A., “Robert Hooke as mechanic and natural philosopher”, Notes and records of the Royal Society, xxxv (1980), 33-48, pp. 33-34.
8. Touched on in Bennett J. A., “The mechanics' philosophy and the mechanical philosophy”, History of science, xxiv (1986), 1-28.
9. This can be inferred from Birch, History, i, 6-7, where payments to employees must be agreed by “the curators of that experiment, or the major part of them”. The eleven named curators were Winthrop, Moray, Wilkins, Henshaw, Croune, Charleton, Abraham Hill, Ent, Goddard, Wren and Hooke. See Birch, History, i, 171, 192, 212, 250, 304, 315, 322, 333, 338, 349.
10. See Wood P., “Methodology and apologetics: Thomas Sprat's ‘History of the Royal Society’”, The British journal for the history of science, xiii (1980), 1-26.
11. Sprat T., The history of the Royal-Society of London, For the Improving of Natural Knowledge (London, 1667; reprint edn, London, 1959), 84-85, 99.
12. Balle to Oldenburg, 14 April 1666, in Oldenburg H., The correspondence of Henry Oldenburg (15 vols, Madison and London, 1965-1986), ed. by Hall A.R. and Hall M. B., iii, 89-91. For some of Balle's contributions, see Birch, History, i, 77, 85, 440-2. His last work is recorded in Birch, History, ii, 296. William Balle must not be confused with his brother Dr Peter Balle.
13. Quoted from Westfall R. S., “Hooke, Robert”, in Dictionary of scientific biography (16 vols, New York, 1970-80), ed. by Gillispie C. C., vi, 483 (hereafter DSB).
14. Birch History, ii, 317, 321, 329. Notice that curators can still be called committees. It is perhaps significant that these experiments included vivisection of dogs, which Hooke disliked. For Plot, see Birch, History, iv, 333.
15. See Section 3.1.3.
16. Birch History, ii, 265.
17. See Birch, History, ii, 172, 178-9, 200, 206, 212, 242-3, 355; Hooke to Boyle, 5 September 1667, in Boyle R., The works (6 vols, London, 1757.
18. Wren C. Jr, Parentalia: Or, memoirs of the family of Wrens (London, 1750; reprint edn, Farnborough, 1965), 263. For secretaryship see Birch, History, iii, 353.
19. Birch History, ii, 415, 417, 424, 435, 436, 442, 451, 461.
20. Birch History, ii, 452, which is significant as initiation of dismissal in the context of Statute XIII, in The record of the Royal Society (ref. 12), 297-8; Birch, History, ii, 441, 472-3. Brouncker played down Hooke's suffering!.
21. E.g. Birch, History, iii, 410; iv, 176, 210, 284, 489.
22. Birch History, iii, 365-366. For the attack, see Section 3.
23. Hunter M. and Wood P., “Towards Solomon's house: Rival strategies for reforming the early Royal Society”, History of science, xxiv (1986), 49-108, esp. pp. 58, 60, 91-92.
24. Birch History, iv, 187-8.
25. Birch History, iv, 333, 399; 262.
26. Birch History, iv, 489, 518, 545, 553.
27. Heilbron J., Physics at the Royal Society during Newton's presidency (Los Angeles, 1983), 18, 20-21, 24-27, 30-31.
28. Wrightson K., English society 1580-1680 (London, 1982), ch. 1, quotations from pp. 18, 22. see Speck W., Stability and strife: England 1714-1760 (London, 1977), ch. 2, quotation from p. 49.
29. The best discussion of professions is Holmes G., Augustan England: Professions, state and society, 1680-1730 (London, 1982), esp. chs 1, 6. I am very grateful to my colleague Dr J. Walton for the analogy with land stewards. On this see Hecht J. J., The domestic servant class in eighteenth-century England (London, 1956), ch. 2, and 181-99. For an example of how a land steward could be treated, see Thomas G. G., Life in a noble household 1641-1700 (2nd edn, London, 1950), 350.
30. Everitt A., Changes in the provinces: The seventeenth century (Occasional Papers of the Department of Local History, 2nd series, no. 1; Leicester, 1970), 43.
31. On coffee houses see Ellis Aytoun, The penny universities: A history of the coffee-houses (London, 1956).
32. Chamberlayne E., Angliae notitia: Or, the present state of England: With divers remarks upon the ancient state thereof (London, 1694), 617-20. This is not the first edition; it was revised every year, and I have not had access to more contemporary editions.
33. For examples on Hooke see Birch, History, i, 179, 192, 379; ii, 66, 68, 90; for Hooke and others see examples in Birch, History, i, 178, 322; ii, 69, 77.
34. Halley to Molyneux, 27 March 1686, in Macpike E. F., Correspondence and papers of Edmond Halley (London, 1937), 58.
35. Birch History, iv, 453-5.
36. Ronan C. A., Edmond Halley: Genius in eclipse (London, 1970), 74-75.
37. For Papin see Birch, History, iv, 355, 454; on operators see Birch, History, i, 216, 218, 273, 286, 331; for Hooke's rebuke see Birch, History, ii, 452.
38. Houghton W., “The English virtuoso in the seventeenth century”, Journal of the history of ideas, iii (1942), 51-73, 190-219, esp. p. 63.
39. For the exotic range, see Hoppen K. T., “The nature of the early Royal Society”, The British journal for the history of science, ix, (1976), 1-24, 243-73.
40. See Pumfrey S. P., “William Gilbert's magnetic philosophy 1580-1684: The creation and dissolution of a discipline” (unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, The Warburg Institute, University of London, 1987), ch. 5.
41. Pumfrey, “Mechanising magnetism in Restoration England”, Annals of science, xliv (1987), 1-22, esp. pp. 8, 17-20.
42. For the general roles of Brouncker, Moray and Neile, see Hartley Harold Sir, The Royal Society: Its origins and founders (London, 1960). See also on Neile Birch, History, ii, 152.
43. Birch History, ii, 54-55.
44. On Power see Birch, History, i, 80-81, 271, although Balle was fleetingly involved (see Birch, History, i, 22).
45. Birch History, i, 440.
46. Bennett J. A., “Hooke, Wren, and the system of the world: Some points towards an historical account”, The British journal for the history of science, viii (1975), 32-61, p. 42; Birch, History, i, 154.
47. Birch History, i, 449, 455, 466.
48. Birch History, i, 476.
49. Birch History, i, 500.
50. Birch History, i, 507.
51. Birch History, i, 505-6.
52. Birch History, i, 506-7.
53. See, for example, Birch, History, ii, 23-24, 26, 54-55, 58-59.
54. Birch History, ii, 69-72, 90-92.
55. For the recorded evolution of Hooke's position see Birch, History, i, 123 (proposed as unremunerated employed curator), 124 (accepted), 309 (conditions discussed), 341-2 (paid to curate Royal experiments), 488 (proposed as curator by office), 490 (proposal announced), 499 (formally proposed), 510 (approved and recommended by council; ii, 4 (elected, 11 January 1665).
56. Birch History, i, 268, 271-2.
57. Birch History, i, 272, 309, 316 and esp. 340.
58. Birch History, i, 213, 272; 396. Notice that the experiments discussed here are those for the Royal entertainment (see p. 391).
59. Birch History, i, 453, 472, 488, 490. Cutler is normally the party accused of bad faith, but it is clear from the Society's parallel considerations of Cutler's endowment and Hooke's curatorship that they hoped secretly to use Cutler's money to save on the expenses of a curator.
60. Birch History, i, 490, 505-7.
61. Hooke R., Micrographia: Or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses (London, 1665).
62. Birch History, i, 490-1. The apology appears in Hooke, Micrographia as an unnumbered preface “To the Royal Society”.
63. Birch History, i, 490-1, 503-7.
64. Birch History, ii, 75, 77-78 (see Palter R., “Early measurements of magnetic force”, Isis, lxiii (1972), 544-58); Birch, History, ii, 90-92; Hooke, An attempt to prove the motion of the Earth (London, 1674).
65. Birch History, ii, 83 et seq.
66. Birch History, ii, esp. 69-77, 83-90, 96, 109, 140, 170-82, 192-3, 201-4; iii, 102, 114-33, 162.
67. Birch History, ii, 109-10, 132.
68. Birch History, ii, 181, 182, 184-6, 192-3; 288, 292, 296. See esp. pp. 192-3.
69. Birch History, iv, 167-8.
70. Frank R. G., Harvey and the Oxford physiologists (London, 1980), 286.
71. Keller A. G., DSB (ref. 19), xi, 40-41, s.v. “Plot, Robert”.
72. See Birch, History, iv, 170-400 passim.
73. Carr J., DSB (ref. 19), viii, 415-16, s.v. “Lister, Martin”; Rappaport R., “Hooke on earthquakes: Lectures, strategy and audience”, The British journal for the history of science, xix (1986), 129-46, esp. pp. 133-4.
74. Birch History, iv, 237-8, 258.
75. Birch History, iv, 198 (two entries).
76. Hooke to Hoskins, 31 Marks 1683, Royal Society manuscripts, Early Letters H.3.70. I am most grateful to Dr Michael Hunter for communicating this corroborating reference.
77. Birch History, iv, 251; Hooke R., Philosophical experiments and observations, ed. by Derham W. (1726; reprint edn, London, 1967), 87-157.
78. The report appeared in Philosophical transactions, xiv (1684), 517-19; Lister cited it earlier in Birch, History, iv, 251.
79. Birch History, iv, 252, 253.
80. Birch History, iv, 261-2, 260.
81. Birch History, iv, 318, 416.
82. Birch History, iv, 518, 515.