Who was Robert Boyle?
Experimenter in Gases and Solids.
Date and Place of Birth:
25th January 1627, Lismore Castle, Waterford,
County Cork, Ireland.
Family Background:
Seventh Son of Robert Boyle the protestant First
Earl of Cork. He was one of fourteen children. His father had gone
to Ireland in 1588 and later bought Sir Walter Raleigh's
estates in Cork in 1600. He was also known as the richest man
in England. His mother Catherine Fenton, was Boyle Senior's second
wife.
Education:
Privately and at Eton College.
Chronology/Biography of Robert
Boyle:
1629: Robert Boyle
Senior, the Earl of Cork appointed Lord High Justice
1631: Earl of Cork
appointed Lord High Treasurer. Death of his mother and Boyle goes
to live in Dublin with the rest of his family and leaving his country
nurse.
1635: Sent to England
to study at Eton.
1638: The earl of
Cork took both his sons away from the School as he did not agree
with the new headmaster's style of teaching which was not having
a beneficial effect on his boys.He was now tutored privately by
one of his father's chaplains.
1639: At the age
of 12 he was sent on a European tour by his father with one of his
brother's visiting Paris and Geneva.
1641: By now he
was in Italy having learnt Italian and he and his tutor visited
Venice.
1642: They visited
Florence. Galileo died whilst he was in the city but there is no
evidence that the two met, however Boyle was much influenced by
the event and this made him study Galileo's works in detail. (May)
Boyle moved on to Marseille waiting for money from his father so
that he could return home. The money sent to him never reached him
due to an uprising in Munster so he returned to Geneva where he
lived off his tutors earnings.
1643: King Charles
the First negotiated with the Irish Rebels so that the Earl of Cork
could bring his troops back to England to help with the Civil War.
The Earl of Cork never forgave the King for treating the Irish as
equals and died later that year.
1644: Boyle sold
some jewellery to finance his return to England. Once home he lived
with his sister Katherine.
1646: Due to the
upheavals of the Civil War it was only now that he could move into
the Manor house of Stalbridge in Dorset, which had been bequeathed
to him by his father. He tried not to take sides in the Civil war
as his father had been a staunch Royalist and his Sister held out
for Parliament and it is clear that he had no feeling for either.
1649: King Charles
the First was tried and executed.
1650: Oliver Cromwell
saw off the threat from King Charles the Second.
1651: Cromwell defeats
the Irish.
1652: Boyle returns
to Ireland to look after his estates and became a very rich man
after Cromwell apportioned Irish lands
to the English lords. This money meant that he could devote himself
to science without having to worry about money.
1653: He visited
London and met John WIlkins who was to later to become one of the
founders of the Royal Society of London. Wilkins had just been appointed
as Warden of Wadham College in Oxford and led what was referred
to as the "Invisible College" which was an anti-scholastic
organisation of Oxford intellectuals and the forerunner to the Royal
Society. Wadham encouraged Boyle to live in Oxford but he decided
not to live in college with Wadham but hired his own rooms so that
he could conduct his experiments. Here he met many important scientists
such as John Wallis, Savilian Professor of Geometry and Christopher
Wren although he never held a university
post himself.
1660: Works with
experiments on an air pump designed by his assistant Robert Hooke.
He found many facts including that sound does not travel in a vacuum.
He also proved that flames needed air to burn and life also needed
air.
1661: He argued
against Aristotle's four elements of earth, air, fire and water
and said that matter was made up of small corpuscles which were
built up by different configurations of primary particles. Although
he owed a debt to Renee Descartes, descartes did not believe in
a vacuum but an all pervading ether.
1662: Boyle's Law
first appears which states that the pressure and volume of gas are
inversely proportional. Many scientists including Thomas Hobbes
said that a vacuum could not exist but Boyle proved that it was
theoretically possible. Hobbes declared
that Boyle's results must be because of some otherwise unknown event.
He also worked on the calcination of metals, the properties of acids
and alkalis, specific gravity, crystallography and refraction and
was the first to prepare phosphorus. He was also appointed as a
director of the East India Company and tirelessly tried to bring
Christianity to the lands where it traded.
1664: He began to
work on optics and colours although his work in this field was not
as successful. He acknowledged the work of his pupil Hooke
as superior.
1668: He left Oxford
to live with his sister Lady Ranelagh in London.
1670: He had a stroke
but his health returned gradually.
1672: He believed
that the work of Isaac Newton on colour
theory was move superior to his own and should replace it.
1680: Although one
of the Founding father's of the Royal Society of London he declined
the offer to become its President as he believed he could not swear
the necessary religious oaths.
Written Works:
- 1660:
“New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall”.
- 1661: “Physiologocial
Essays”.
- 1662: “Sceptical
Chymist”.
- 1666:
“Origin of Forms and Qualities”.
- 1664: “Experiments
and Considerations Touching Colours”.
- (1692):
“General History of the Air”.
Marriage:
Never married.
Places of Interest:
LONDON:
The Science Museum
The Royal Society of London
Date and Place of Death:
30th December 1691, London, England.
Age at Death:
64.
Site of Grave:
St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, St. Martin’s
Place, London, England.
