Sir Christopher Wren was born at East Knoyle, Wiltshire, on October 20, 1632. He was the son of Christopher Wren, rector of East Knoyle. He early showed a taste for natural science and mathematics, and up to his twenty-ninth year devoted himself with great genius to scientific pursuits. His fame rests chiefly on his architectural achievements, but had his philosophical pursuits not been interfered with by the arduous profession to which he later devoted himself he could not have failed of securing a scientific position higher than that attained by any of his contemporaries, with of course one exception, Newton. Hooke in his "Micrographia" wrote of him, "I must affirm that scarce ever met in one man such a mechanical hand and so philosophical a mind." He made elaborate drawings to illustrate the anatomy of the brain, invented an instrument for planting, a method of making fresh water at sea, produced a scheme for the graphical construction of solar and lunar eclipses and occultation of stars, and solved a problem proposed by Pascal to the geometers of England. The practical use of the barometer as connected with the weather is attributed to him, though it was not commonly used as a weather glass until a much later date. He invented a method for transfusion of blood, experimented scientifically in the force of gunpowder, and made innumerable other like experiments and inventions.
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The first definite information we have of his applying himself professionally to architecture, is his acceptance in his twenty-ninth year of an invitation from Charles II. to act practically as surveyor-general to his majesty's works, though nominally as assistant to Sir Charles Denham. It is clear, however, that he must have already given proof of fitness before such an appointment could have been offered.
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The two earliest original works we hear of are the chapel of Pembroke College Cambridge, built at the expense of his uncle, and the Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford. The chapel was finished in two years, but the Sheldonian Theatre not till 1669. We may therefore take Pembroke Chapel as his first original work, and it need occasion no surprise if we find in it signs of the 'prentice hand. Wren evidently felt the need of better opportunities for study, and took the earliest opportunity available to him to supply it by his journey to Paris in 1665, when ordinary business in London and in other parts of England was interrupted by the plague. This journey to France, where he seems to have resided for about six months, is the only one of which any information exists.