1. Hooke's Anticipation of the Kinetic Theory and of Synchronism

Extract

While collecting materials for a Text-book of the Properties of Matter, the author had occasion to consult the very curious pamphlet by Robert Hooke, entitled Lectures de Potentia Reditutiva, or of Spring (London, 1678). In this work there is a clear statement of the principle of Synchronism, which was applied by Stokes to the explanation of the basis of Spectrum Analysis. There is also a very remarkable statement of the elementary principles of the modern Kinetic Theory of Gases, the first mention of which is usually fixed sixty years later, and ascribed to D. Bernoulli in his Hydrodynamica (Argentorati, 1738).