Law relating the pressure and volume of a gas at constant temperature (1662)
Pressure is inversely proportional to volume; published in the second edition of his Spring of the Air; known in France as Mariotte's law
Science · Chemistry
Robert Boyle
1627–1691 · Anglo-Irish
Chemistry and experimental natural philosophy (pneumatics)
Robert Boyle, born at Lismore Castle in Ireland as the fourteenth child of the Earl of Cork, was a founding figure of modern chemistry and of the experimental method. With an air pump built by his assistant Robert Hooke he studied the "spring of the air", leading to Boyle's law, and in The Sceptical Chymist he attacked Aristotelian and alchemical ideas of the elements in favour of a corpuscular (particle) view of matter. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society and a devout writer on natural theology.
How to spot them
- ▸Boyle's law: at constant temperature, the pressure of a gas is inversely proportional to its volume
- ▸The Sceptical Chymist (1661); often called the 'father of modern chemistry'
- ▸Air pump experiments at Oxford with his assistant Robert Hooke
- ▸Son of the 1st Earl of Cork, born at Lismore Castle; founding Fellow of the Royal Society
Key discoveries & works
The Sceptical Chymist (1661)
Dialogue attacking the Aristotelian four elements and the Paracelsian three principles
New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air, and its Effects (1660)
Account of his air-pump experiments on air pressure, combustion, respiration and sound
The air pump experiments with Robert Hooke (the 'machina Boyleana') (late 1650s)
Hooke built the pump used for his vacuum experiments in Oxford
Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects (1665)
Devotional meditations, later satirised by Jonathan Swift
Key ideas
- Corpuscularianism: matter is made of small particles whose motions and arrangements explain chemical properties
- Championed careful, repeatable experiment and detailed public reporting of results
- Scepticism towards the Aristotelian four elements and the alchemists' salt, sulphur and mercury
- Natural theology: study of nature as a way to glorify God; endowed the Boyle Lectures in his will
Quick-fire facts
- •Born at Lismore Castle, County Waterford, the fourteenth child and seventh son of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork
- •Educated at Eton, then toured Europe; was in Florence when Galileo died in 1642
- •Worked in Oxford from the mid-1650s to 1668, then lived in London with his sister Katherine, Lady Ranelagh
- •Associated with the 'Invisible College' and was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society (1660)
- •Declined the presidency of the Royal Society in 1680 because of scruples over taking the required oaths
- •Practised alchemy and lobbied for the repeal of the English statute banning 'multiplying' gold and silver
- •Left money in his will to found the Boyle Lectures defending Christianity
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Sources
- Science History Institute — Robert Boyle