Editing Christopher Wren (section)

==Scientific career==
[[File:Gresham_College,_Perspective,_with_key._Wellcome_M0002426.jpg|thumb|Wren spent a portion of his scientific career at [[Gresham College]] ]]
One of Wren's friends, [[Robert Hooke]], scientist and architect and a fellow [[Westminster School]]boy, said of him "Since the time of [[Archimedes]] there scarce ever met in one man in so great perfection such a mechanical hand and so philosophical mind."

When a fellow of [[All Souls College, Oxford|All Souls]], Wren constructed a transparent beehive for scientific observation; he began observing the Moon, which was to lead to the invention of [[filar micrometer|micrometer]]s for the telescope. According to Parentalia (pp.&nbsp;210–211), his solid model of the Moon attracted the attention of the King who commanded Wren to perfect it and present it to him. 
{{blockquote|text=He contrived an artificial Eye, truly and dioptrically made (as large as a Tennis-Ball) representing the Picture as Nature makes it: The Cornea, and Crystalline were Glass, the other Humours, Water. |source= ''Parentalia'', p. 209}} 
He experimented on terrestrial [[magnetism]] and had taken part in medical experiments while at [[Wadham College, Oxford|Wadham College]], performing the first successful injection of a substance into the bloodstream (of a [[dog]]). In [[Gresham College]], he did experiments involving determining [[longitude]] through magnetic variation and through lunar observation to help with [[navigation]], and helped construct a {{convert|35|ft|m|adj=on}} telescope with Sir Paul Neile. Wren also studied and improved the microscope and telescope at this time. He had also been making observations of the planet [[Saturn]] from around 1652 with the aim of explaining its appearance. His hypothesis was written up in ''De corpore saturni'' but before the work was published, [[Christiaan Huygens|Huygens]] presented his theory of the rings of Saturn. Immediately Wren recognised this as a better hypothesis than his own and ''De corpore saturni'' was never published. In addition, he constructed an exquisitely detailed lunar model and presented it to the king. In 1658, he found the length of an arc of the [[cycloid]] using an exhaustion proof based on dissections to reduce the problem to summing segments of chords of a circle which are in geometric progression.

A year into Wren's appointment as a [[Savilian Chair of Astronomy|Savilian Professor]] in Oxford, the [[Royal Society]] was created and Wren became an active member. As Savilian Professor, Wren studied [[mechanics]] thoroughly, especially [[elastic collision]]s and [[pendulum]] motions. He also directed his far-ranging intelligence to the study of [[meteorology]]: in 1662, he invented the tipping bucket [[rain gauge]] and, in 1663, designed a "weather-clock" that would record temperature, humidity, rainfall and barometric pressure. A working weather clock based on Wren's design was completed by Robert Hooke in 1679.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Introduction of Self-Registering Meteorological Instruments|first=Robert P.|last=Multhauf|journal=United States National Museum Bulletin|date=1961}}{{ISBN?}}</ref>

In addition, Wren experimented on muscle functionality, hypothesizing that the swelling and shrinking of muscles might proceed from a fermentative motion arising from the mixture of two heterogeneous fluids. Although this is incorrect, it was at least founded upon observation and may mark a new outlook on medicine: specialisation.

Another topic to which Wren contributed was optics. He published a description of an engine to create perspective drawings and he discussed the grinding of conical lenses and mirrors. Out of this work came another of Wren's important mathematical results, namely that the [[hyperboloid]] of revolution is a [[ruled surface]]. These results were published in 1669.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1098/rstl.1669.0018|title = Generatio corporis cylindroidis hyperbolici, elaborandis lentibus hyperbolicis accommodati, auth. Christophoro Wren L L D. Et Regiorum Ædificiorum Præfecto, nec non-Soc. Regiæ Sodali|journal = Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London|volume = 4|issue = 48|pages = 961–962|year = 1669|bibcode = 1669RSPT....4..961W|doi-access = free|last1 = Wren|first1 = Christophoro}}</ref> In subsequent years, Wren continued with his work with the Royal Society, although after the 1680s his scientific interests seem to have waned: no doubt his architectural and official duties absorbed more time.

It was a problem posed by Wren that serves as an ultimate source to the conception of Newton's ''[[Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis]]''. [[Robert Hooke]] had theorised that planets, moving [[in vacuo]], describe orbits around the Sun because of a rectilinear inertial motion by the tangent and an accelerated motion towards the Sun. Wren's challenge to [[Edmond Halley|Halley]] and Hooke, for the reward of a book worth thirty shillings, was to provide, within the context of Hooke's hypothesis, a mathematical theory linking [[Kepler's laws]] with a specific force law. Halley took the problem to Newton for advice, prompting the latter to write a nine-page answer, ''[[De motu corporum in gyrum]]'', which was later to be expanded into the ''Principia''.<ref>[[Ivor Grattan-Guinness|Grattan-Guinness, Ivor]], ed.; ''Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics'', 1st ed., 2005, pp.&nbsp;64–65 {{ISBN?}}</ref>

Mentioned above are only a few of Wren's scientific works. He also studied other areas, ranging from agriculture, [[ballistics]], water and freezing, light and [[refraction]], to name only a few. [[Thomas Birch]]'s ''History of the Royal Society'' (1756–57) is one of the most important sources of our knowledge not only of the origins of the Society, but also the day-to-day running of the Society. It is in these records that most of Wren's known scientific works are recorded.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}}