The Life of Dr. Robert Hooke.

I cannot determine exactly what this model was, but I have heard that it was designed to have all the chief streets—such as from Leadenhall corner to Newgate, and the like—lie in an exact straight line, and all other cross streets turning out of them at right angles, with all churches, public buildings, market-places, and so forth, in proper and convenient locations. No doubt, this would have added much to the beauty and symmetry of the whole. I do not know how it came not to be accepted, but it is probable that this contribution helped him get noticed by the city magistrates, and soon after he was made Surveyor.

The rebuilding of the city, according to the Act of Parliament, required an able person to set out the ground to the several property owners. Mr. Hooke was chosen and appointed City Surveyor for that difficult work, which, being very great, took up a large proportion of his time, to the no small hindrance of his philosophical investigations.

In this employment, he acquired the most part of that estate he died possessed of, as was evident by a large iron chest of money found after his death, which had been locked with the key left in it, and a date on it indicating it had been shut up for over thirty years. In this was contained the greatest part of what he left behind him, which was to the value of many thousands in gold and silver. It cannot be denied that he could justly acquire a considerable estate through this position; every person after the fire was in haste to have their concerns expedited. As I have been informed, he had no rest, early or late, from persons soliciting to have their grounds set out. This service, performed without any fraud or injustice, deserved a due recompense in such a fatiguing job.

October 31, 1666: He showed his inclining pendulum, with the uses thereof, to regulate the motions of a clock as exactly as a long one.

On January 9, 1666/7, he was ordered to prosecute his observations of the earth's parallax previously proposed by him. A large account of the result of his observations therein was later printed in his Attempt to Prove the Motion of the Earth (1674), being the first of his Cutlerian Lectures published.

On February 6 following, he produced his new lamp, contrived so as to supply the oil in equal quantity as it is consumed, so that it may never rise too much or too little. The further description and explanation of this, with many curious remarks, were published in 1677, titled Lampas, or Descriptions of some Improvements of Lamps and Water-poises, etc.

February 28: He first produced his reflecting telescope, which is described with the reasoning behind the principle, along with other instruments, in his treatise of Helioscopes, printed in 1676.

On June 17, 1667, and afterwards, he read large discourses on the causes, powers, and effects of earthquakes, affirming that the great hills and mountains in the world had been raised by them. On this subject, he later made many discourses and lectures at various times, the most part of which are collected together in this volume, beginning at page 279.