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December 2023 Newsletter Robert Hooke & Ramsbury Manor

Ramsbury Manor, Ramsbury, Wiltshire, on the River Kennet between Hungerford and Marlborough Ramsbury Manor is a Grade I listed country house. The architect was Robert Hooke and the manor was built in 1681-1686 for the Attorney-General Sir William Jones.   The property is referred to as ...


December 2021 Newsletter Robert Hooke and Santiago Ramn y Cajal: two geniuses united by the cell

Dr Tomás Camacho Vigo (Spain) camachoat@vithas.es   Considering his accomplishments, it is a surprise that Robert Hooke is not more renowned. As a physician, I especially esteem him as the person who identified biology’s most essential unit, the cell. Like Leonardo da V...


October 2021 Robert Hooke, Lewis Carroll and Quantum Physics

Robert Hooke, Lewis Carroll and Quantum Physics  Robert Hooke was born in 1635 just prior to a period in history known to philosophers as ‘The Age of Enlightenment’. The Enlightenment included a range of ideas; the main one being that the evidence of the senses and reasoning shou...


July 2021 Newsletter Robert Hooke through Space & Time

Robert Hooke through Space & Time From a young age Robert was curious about everything and his observations lead to very far sited conclusions which were well ahead of the age he lived in. Although he did not realise it his observations touched upon meteorology, evolution and tectonic plate m...


May 2021 Newsletter

THOMAS WILLIS Physician 1621-1675 Summary of a Talk by Prof Terry Hope (Neurosurgeon) Thomas Willis in Puritan dress Thomas Willis was born in Great Bedwyn Wiltshire on 27 January 1621.  When he was about 12 or 13 his mother inherited a great estate in the village of North Hinksey,...


April 2021 Newsletter Historic Person Societies

Robert Hooke (1635-1703) is not the only person from history to have a dedicated society. For this newsletter I have reviewed similar societies to see what might be gleaned. RHS members may consider it poetic justice that Isaac Newton does not have a society, but Nottingham Trent University has n...


March 2021 Newsletter Meteorology

Robert Hooke and Meteorology: His Promotion of Citizen Science   In 1667 Robert Hooke notes in his diary ‘Rainy morn’.  It may be just one small entry for the acclaimed physicist, but it’s a giant leap for meteorology.  Read in conjunction with Hooke’s di...


January 2021 The Monument

A London Landmark moonlights as a Physics Lab                                                    The Monument’s spiral staircase allowed precision measurement...


November 2020 Newsletter

ENEMIES OF THE MICROSCOPE               Margaret Cavendish Duchess Newcastle-upon-Tyne1623-1673                      &n...


October 2020 Newsletter

Robert Hooke The Royal Society’s Microscopist - Author Terry Hope ​   Fig. 1: Engraving of the head of a fly, from Micrographia   At school aged about fifteen I learnt Hooke’s law in a physics class. It was dry stuff loading a...


September 2020 Newsletter - Shenfield Place

Shenfield Place is one of the few remaining country houses designed and built by Robert Hooke. It is positioned close to the nearby 13th century Shenfield Parish Church of ‘St Mary the Virgin’ and alongside the old Roman road, which was the main coaching route between London and Colchest...


Robert Hooke and his Interest in Clocks

Author:  Mike Blandford   Robert’s lifelong interest in anything mechanical naturally attracted him to the working of clocks. As a child; growing up in the West Wight, the only time he would have seen a clock, I suspect, is on visits to see Sir John Oglander at Nunwell House wi...


Memorial lunch 3 March 2020

Thirty members attended the annual Memorial Lunch which was held on Tuesday 3rd March 2020 being the date of Robert Hooke’s death.  We enjoyed an excellent lunch at the Royal Solent Yacht Club preceded by a light-hearted talk and slides on a Tour of Milton Keynes by one of our members, ai...


AGM January 2020

Twenty-nine members and seven visitors attended our AGM in January.  After running through the business of the evening our Chairman, headed a lively presentation aided by two Committee members.  The first demonstration was Prince Rupert's Drops which was performed under controlled cond...