Robert Hooke

(1635 - 1703)

While curator of experiments for the Royal Society in London, Robert Hooke devised a compound microscope with an illumination system. The result of years of inspection, Micrographia astonished London with its detailed large-scale illustrations. A biographer of Hooke described the scientist as “despicable, being crooked and low of stature, and as he grew older, more and more deformed…He went stooping and very fast, having but a light body to carry, and a great deal of spirits and activity, especially in his youth.”