Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.9432
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    Hair and a shell

    Date
    1665
    Creator
    Unknown, Engraver
    After
    Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural Philosopher
    Object type
    Library reference
    RCN 45230
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 299mm
    width (print): 176mm
    Subject
    Physics
       > Optics
          > Microscopy
    Biology
    Description
    Microscopic study of a number of samples of hair, including Fig. 2.a. a pig’s bristle, 2.b. a cat’s whisker, 2.c/d. horse hair, 2.e. human hair [bottom] and Fig. 3. an Indian deer’s hair [middle], as well as a shell specimen [Fig. X, top].

    Inscribed above: ‘Schem V’

    Plate 5 from Robert Hooke’s Micrographia: or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon (1665), the first fully-illustrated book on the topic of microscopy. In the preface Hooke asserts that he had discovered ‘a new visible World’.

    Robert Hooke (1635-1703) British natural philosopher was a founding member of the Royal Society, elected in 1663. Before his career with the Royal Society, Hooke had been apprenticed to painter Peter Lely (1618-1680), where he learned to draw and paint. Though he did not engrave the images in Micrographia himself they were engraved after his illustrations.
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Europe
          > United Kingdom
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