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The Royal Society: Science in the Making

'A Description Of an Instrument of dividing a Foot into many thousand parts and thereby measuring the Diameters of planets with great exactnesse etc' by Robert Hooke

Reference number: RBO/3/65

Date: 1667

Description

'The instrument itself being contrived by Mr Richard Towneley to the Royal Society and this following Description of it being made by Mr Hook was read before the Society'

Annotated engraving attached and figures in text
Printed in 'Philosophical Transactions', vol 2, no 29, p 541

Reference number
RBO/3/65
Earliest possible date
1667
Page extent
7 pages
Format
Manuscript

Creator name

Robert Hooke

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Citation

Robert Hooke, 'A Description Of an Instrument of dividing a Foot into many thousand parts and thereby measuring the Diameters of planets with great exactnesse etc' by Robert Hooke, 1667, RBO/3/65, The Royal Society Archives, London, https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rbo_3_65/a-description-of-an-instrument-of-dividing-a-foot-into-many-thousand-parts-and-thereby-measuring-the-diameters-of-planets-with-great-exactnesse-etc-by-robert-hooke, accessed on 19 January 2026

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https://makingscience.royalsociety.org/items/rbo_3_65/a-description-of-an-instrument-of-dividing-a-foot-into-many-thousand-parts-and-thereby-measuring-the-diameters-of-planets-with-great-exactnesse-etc-by-robert-hooke

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    The 'Register Books Originals' contain copies of scientific papers submitted to the Society and considered for publication. The papers were transcribed to establish their precedence for a particular discovery or idea.

    Dates: 1661 - 1739

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