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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Robert Hooke
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(1635–1703) Scientist who made important contributions in a wide range of subjects (physics, optics, gravity, astronomy, microscopy, palaeontology), and who excelled as a deviser of instruments and experimental methods, but whose ideas tended to be carried to their conclusions by others. A founder member of the *Royal Society, he was largely responsible for its early professional standards; but his employment there as curator must have contributed to the disruption of his own researches, for he was required to demonstrate 'three or four considerable experiments' at each weekly meeting. The discovery named after him, Hooke's Law, concerns elasticity.
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