Editing Robert Hooke (section)

=== Oxford ===
[[File:Robert Boyle 0001.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Robert Boyle]] by [[Johann Kerseboom]], at [[Gawthorpe Hall]], Lancashire]]

In 1653, Hooke secured a place at [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford]], receiving free tuition and accommodation as an [[organist]] and a [[chorister]], and a basic income as a [[servitor]],{{sfnp|Jardine|2003|p=65}}{{efn|According to Gribbin and Gribbin, the [[Puritanism|Puritan]] laws at the time forbade music in churches. The Mr Goodman to whom Hooke was nominally servitor was not an undergraduate at the time so Hooke was not required to perform any services in return.{{sfnp|Gribbin|Gribbin|2017|p=7}}}} despite the fact he did not officially [[matriculate]] until 1658.{{sfnp|Jardine|2003|p=65}}  In 1662, Hooke was awarded a [[Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin)|Master of Arts]] degree.{{sfnp|Pugliese|2004}} 

While a student at Oxford, Hooke was also employed as an assistant to Dr [[Thomas Willis]]{{snd}} a physician, chemist and member of the [[Oxford Philosophical Club]].{{sfnp|Gribbin|Gribbin|2017|p=10}}{{efn|A chance-surviving copy of Willis's pioneering work {{lang|la|De anima brutorum}}, a gift from the author, was chosen by Hooke from Wilkins's library on his death as a memento at [[John Tillotson]]'s invitation. This book is now in the [[Wellcome Library]].{{sfnp|Hooke|1673}}}} The Philosophical Club had been founded by [[John Wilkins]], Warden of [[Wadham College]], who led this important group of scientists who went on to form the nucleus of the [[Royal Society]].{{sfnp|Syfret|1948|p=78}} In 1659, Hooke described to the Club some elements of a method of heavier-than-air flight but concluded human muscles were insufficient to the task.{{sfnp|Waller|1705|p=iv}} Through the Club, Hooke met [[Seth Ward (bishop of Salisbury)|Seth Ward]] (the University's [[Savilian Professor of Astronomy]])  and developed for Ward a mechanism that improved the regularity of pendulum clocks used for astronomical time-keeping.{{sfnp|Gribbin|Gribbin|2017|p=11}}  Hooke characterised his Oxford days as the foundation of his lifelong passion for science.{{sfnp|Jardine|2003|p=81}} The friends he made there, particularly [[Christopher Wren]], were important to him throughout his career. Willis introduced Hooke to [[Robert Boyle]], who the Club sought to attract to Oxford.{{sfnp|Gribbin|Gribbin|2017|p=15}}

In 1655, Boyle moved to Oxford and Hooke became nominally his assistant but in practice his co-experimenter.{{sfnp|Gribbin|Gribbin|2017|p=15}} Boyle had been working on gas pressures; the possibility a vacuum might exist despite [[Aristotle]]'s maxim "[[Horror vacui (physics)|Nature abhors a vacuum]]" had just [[Evangelista Torricelli#Barometer|begun to be considered]]. Hooke developed an air pump for Boyle's experiments rather than use [[Ralph Greatorex]]'s pump, which Hooke considered as "too gross to perform any great matter".{{sfnp|Fulton|1960|p=123}}  Hooke's engine enabled the development of the [[Boyles Law|eponymous law]] that was subsequently attributed to Boyle;{{sfnp|Gribbin|Gribbin|2017|p=19}}{{efn|Gribbin and Gribbin say: "it is now widely accepted that it was Hooke who discovered what is now known as 'Boyle's Law' of gasses".{{sfnp|Gribbin|Gribbin|2017|p=xiii}} Boyle published the law in his 1662 book but did not claim it as his own.{{sfnp|Gribbin|Gribbin|2017|p=19}}}} Hooke had a particularly keen eye and was an adept mathematician, neither of which applied to Boyle. Hooke taught Boyle [[Euclid's Elements|Euclid's ''Elements'']] and [[Descartes]]'s ''[[Principles of Philosophy]]'';{{sfnp|Aubrey|1898|p=411}} it also caused them to recognise [[fire]] as a chemical reaction and not, as Aristotle taught, a [[Classical element|fundamental element]] of nature.{{sfnp|Inwood|2003|pp=19, 20}}