Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle (Lismore Castle, Waterford County, Ireland, January 25, 1627 – London, December 30, 1691) was a British chemist and physicist, mainly known for Boyle's law (1662) that states that the pressure of a fixed amount of gas is inversely proportional to its volume. The experimental work that lead to this law was by means of an air pump invented in 1634 by Otto von Guericke, the Burgomaster of Magdeburg. The pump was greatly improved by Boyle in corporation with his assistant Robert Hooke.

Boyle was the first to state that a chemical compound consists of small particles, which he called "corpuscles". He was one of the first to prepare phosphorus (see phosphorus for more details about the discovery of the element) and the first to describe hydrogen gas. Although he was one of the first chemists in the modern sense of the word, he still believed, as the alchemists did, that transmutation of individual chemical elements was possible.

Boyle's main contributions to chemistry are the following: (1) he realized that chemistry is worthy of study for its own sake, and not merely an aid to alchemy (although he did not reject the latter); (2) he introduced rigorous experimental methods into chemistry; (3) he gave a clear definition of a chemical element and showed by experiment that the four elements of Aristotle and the three principles of the alchemists (mercury, sulfur, and salt) did not deserve to be called elements or principles at all, since none of them could be extracted from bodies, e.g., from metals.

Boyle was one of the founders of the Royal Society of London, chartered in 1662.

Biography

Robert Boyle was born as his parents' fourteenth child and seventh son, the last to survive to adulthood. His mother died in childbirth a few weeks after Robert's third birthday.

Robert's father, Richard Boyle, is remembered as the "Great Earl of Cork". Richard Boyle, who was not from rich background, had gone to Ireland in 1588 to seek his fortune. This was the time that England was colonizing all of Ireland, resulting in the complete conquest of Ireland by 1603 and many later uprisings of the oppressed Irish. In a few years, due partly to good marriages—first (1595) to a rich widow and second (1603) to the 17-year old Catherine Fenton, Robert's mother and daughter of the Secretary of State for Ireland—and due to the influence of friends in Court Robert's father had risen to "Sir Richard Boyle, Knight, Lord Boyle, Baron of Youghall, Lord Dungarvan, Earl of Cork, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland". At the time of Robert's birth his father's means amounted to two hundred and fifty pounds a day exclusive of houses and parks.

Robert Boyle was a competent linguist from an early age, and was reputed to be fluent in French and Latin at the age of eight. As a young boy of nine he went to Eton, together with his brother Francis. After three years at Eton, the Boyle brothers engaged a French tutor and traveled for five years on the European continent, visiting France, Switzerland, and Italy.

When visiting Geneva during his grand tour, the fourteen year old Boyle underwent what he clearly felt to be a conversion from nominal, or at least unthinking, Christianity to committed Christianity and he promised himself then that he would live a pious Christian life. In adult life he wrote Christian devotional and ethical essays and theological tracts on biblical language, the limits of reason, and the role of the natural philosopher as a Christian. He sponsored many religious missions, as well as the translation of the Scriptures into several languages. Throughout his life, he spread large parts of his income widely in charitable donations and he left most of his property to charity after his death.

(To be continued)

Reference

Desmond Reilly, Robert Boyle and his background, Journal of Chemical Education, vol. 28, pp. 178 - 183 (1951) Online

External link

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy A long thorough article about Boyle, his philosophy, theology, and science.