Editing Robert Boyle (section)

==Scientific contributions==
[[File:Boyle air pump.jpg|thumb|right|Boyle's [[vacuum pump]]. It illustrates: a 28.4-litre glass "receiver" (A) connected by a stopcock (S, N) to a 36-cm-long brass pumping cylinder, through which a padded piston (4) could be cranked by a toothed shaft with handle (5, 6, 7). To operate the air pump, first, the stopcock was closed, and the piston was cranked down. Then, with the stopcock opened, part of the air in the receiver moves into the cylinder. Then the stopcock was closed, the brass plug (R) removed, and the piston raised, expelling air from the cylinder. As the procedure was repeated, the air pressure in the receiver decreased.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boas Hall |first=Marie |date=August 1967 |title=Robert Boyle |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0867-96 |journal=Scientific American |volume=217 |issue=2 |pages=96–102 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0867-96 |bibcode=1967SciAm.217b..96B |issn=0036-8733}}</ref>]] Boyle's great merit as a scientific investigator is that he carried out the principles which [[Francis Bacon (philosopher)|Francis Bacon]] espoused in the ''[[Novum Organum]]''. Yet he would not avow himself a follower of Bacon, or indeed of any other teacher.<ref name=EB1911/>

=== Emphasis on experiments ===
On several occasions, he mentions that to keep his judgment as unprepossessed as might be with any of the modern theories of philosophy, until he was "provided of experiments" to help him judge of them. He refrained from any study of the [[atomism|atomical]] and the [[René Descartes|Cartesian]] systems, and even of the Novum Organum itself, though he admits to "transiently consulting" them about a few particulars. Nothing was more alien to his mental temperament than the spinning of hypotheses. "I, ... love not to believe any thing upon Conjectures, when by a not over-difficult Experiment I can try whether it be True or no..."<ref name="Boyle 1660">{{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/chepfl-lipr-AXA74/page/6/ |title=New experiments physico-mechanicall, touching the spring of the air, and its effects (made, for the most part, in a new pneumatical engine): Written by way of letter to the Right Honorable Charles, Lord Vicount of Dungarvan, eldest son to the Earl of Corke |date=1660 |publisher=Printed by H. Hall for Tho. Robinson |pages=6 |language=en}}</ref>

He regarded the acquisition of knowledge as an end in itself, and in consequence, he gained a wider outlook on the aims of scientific inquiry than had been enjoyed by his predecessors for many centuries. This, however, did not mean that he paid no attention to the practical application of science, nor that he despised practical knowledge.<ref name="EB1911" />
[[File:Acta Eruditorum - XI fisica, 1682 – BEIC 13349171.jpg|thumb|Fig. 3: Illustration of ''Excerptum ex collectionibus philosophicis anglicis... novum genus lampadis à Rob. Boyle'' ... published in [[Acta Eruditorum]], 1682]]

=== Physics and Chemistry ===

==== Vacuum pump ====
To Boyle, [[Otto von Guericke#Air pressure and the vacuum|Guericke's vacuum pump]] had two important limitations. Firstly, its evacuation required "the continual labour of two strong men for divers hours",<ref name="Boyle 1660" /> and secondly, "the Receiver, or Glass to be empty'd, consisting of one entire and uninterrupted Globe ... of Glass ... is so made, that things cannot be convey'd into it".<ref name="Boyle 1660" /> Hooke constructed a pump that could be operated on a desktop, and conveniently opened to insert candles, mice, birds, bells, pendulums, and other research objects.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=West |first=John B. |date=2005 |title=Robert Boyle’s landmark book of 1660 with the first experiments on rarified air |url=https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00759.2004 |journal=Journal of Applied Physiology |language=en |volume=98 |issue=1 |pages=31-39 |doi=10.1152/japplphysiol.00759.2004}}</ref> With Hooke's pump, Boyle began a series of experiments on the properties of air.<ref name="acottLaw" /><ref name="EB1911" /> An account of Boyle's work with the pump was published in 1660 under the title ''New Experiments Physico-Mechanical, Touching the Spring of the Air, and its Effects''.<ref name="Boyle 16602">{{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=Robert |url=https://archive.org/details/chepfl-lipr-AXA74/page/n9/ |title=New experiments physico-mechanicall, touching the spring of the air, and its effects (made, for the most part, in a new pneumatical engine): Written by way of letter to the Right Honorable Charles, Lord Vicount of Dungarvan, eldest son to the Earl of Corke |date=1660 |publisher=Printed by H. Hall for Tho. Robinson |pages= |language=en}}</ref>

==== Chemistry ====
Robert Boyle was an [[alchemy|alchemist]];<ref name="More1941">{{Cite journal |doi=10.2307/2707281 |last=More |first=Louis Trenchard |title=Boyle as Alchemist |journal=Journal of the History of Ideas |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=61–76 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |date=January 1941 |jstor=2707281}}</ref> and believing the [[wikt:Transmutation|transmutation]] of metals to be a possibility, he carried out experiments in the hope of achieving it; and he was instrumental in obtaining the repeal, by the [[Royal Mines Act 1688]] ([[1 Will. & Mar.]] c. 30), of the statute of [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]] against multiplying gold and silver, the [[Gold and Silver Act 1403]] ([[5 Hen. 4]]. c. 4).<ref name="sep-boyle">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=MacIntosh |first1=J. J. |last2=Anstey |first2=Peter |chapter=Robert Boyle |title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |editor-first=Edward N. |editor-last=Zalta |chapter-url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/boyle/notes.html#4 |year=2010 |edition=Fall |at=note 4}}</ref><ref name="EB1911" /> With all the important work he accomplished in [[physics]], [[chemistry]] was his peculiar and favourite study. His first book on the subject was ''[[The Sceptical Chymist]]'', published in 1661, in which he criticised the "experiments whereby vulgar [[Spagyric|Spagyrists]] are wont to endeavour to evince their Salt, [[Sulphur]] and [[Mercury (element)|Mercury]] to be the true Principles of Things". For him, chemistry was the science of the composition of substances, not merely an adjunct to the arts of the alchemist or the physician.<ref name="EB1911" />

==== Elements, compounds, and particles of matter ====
Boyle endorsed the view of elements as the undecomposable constituents of material bodies; and made the distinction between [[mixture]]s and [[compound (chemistry)|compound]]s. He made considerable progress in the technique of detecting their ingredients, a process which he designated by the term "analysis". He further supposed that the elements were ultimately composed of [[Subatomic particle|particle]]s of various sorts and sizes, into which, however, they were not to be resolved in any known way. He studied the chemistry of [[combustion]] and of [[Respiration (physiology)|respiration]], and conducted experiments in [[physiology]], where, however, he was hampered by the "tenderness of his nature" which kept him from anatomical [[dissection]]s, especially [[vivisection]]s, though he knew them to be "most instructing".<ref name="EB1911" />

==== "Factitious airs" ====
Around 1670, upon producing what is now known to be [[hydrogen]], Boyle coined the term "[[factitious airs]]".<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |last=Mattson |first=Bruce |title=A Brief History of the Study of Gas Chemistry. |url=http://mattson.creighton.edu/Chem13_40th_Yr_Commemorative/History%20of%20Gas%20Chemistry.pdf |website=mattson.creighton.edu/}}</ref> ''Factitious'' means "artificial, not natural".<ref name="dictionary">{{cite web |title=Factitious |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/factitious |access-date=23 March 2021 |website=dictionary.cambridge.org |language=en}}</ref> Later, English chemist and physicist [[Henry Cavendish]] used the term "factitious air" to refer to "any kind of air which is contained in other bodies in an unelastic state, and is produced from thence by art".<ref name="cavendish1766">{{cite journal |last=Cavendish |first=Henry |vauthors= |date=31 December 1766 |title=XIX. Three papers, containing experiments on factitious air |journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London |volume=56 |pages=141–184 |doi=10.1098/rstl.1766.0019 |s2cid=186209704 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

==== Heat ====

Like English philosopher [[Francis Bacon]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bacon |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Bacon |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45988/pg45988-images.html |title=Novum Organum: Or, True Suggestions for the Interpretation of Nature |publisher=P. F. Collier & son. |year=1902 |pages=153, 156 |orig-year=1620}}</ref> [[Galileo Galilei]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Adriaans |first=P. |editor-last=Zalta |editor-first=E.N. |editor2-last=Nodelman |editor2-first=U. |title=Information |url=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2024/entries/information/#Phys |website=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |edition=Summer 2024}}</ref> and Robert Hooke<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hooke |first=R. |author-link=Robert Hooke |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15491/15491-h/15491-h.htm |title=Micrographia: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon |publisher=Printed by Jo. Martyn, and Ja. Allestry, Printers to the Royal Society |year=1665 |page=12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hooke |first=R. |url=https://archive.org/details/b30454621_0001/page/n6/mode/1up |title=The posthumous works of Robert Hooke ... containing his Cutlerian lectures, and other discourses, read at the meetings of the illustrious Royal Society ... Illustrated with sculptures. To these discourses is prefixt the author's life, giving an account of his studies and employments, with an enumeration of the many experiments, instruments, contrivances and inventions, by him made and produc'd as Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society |publisher=Publish'd by Richard Waller. Printed by Sam. Smith and Benj. Walford, (Printers to the Royal Society) |year=1705 |orig-date=1681 |page=116}}</ref> had done before him, Boyle declared that heat consists of the motion of the invisible, constituent particles of objects.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boyle |first=R. |url=https://archive.org/details/experimentsnotes00boyl/page/n8/mode/1up |title=Experiments, notes, &c., about the mechanical origine or production of divers particular qualities: Among which is inserted a discourse of the imperfection of the chymist's doctrine of qualities; together with some reflections upon the hypothesis of alcali and acidum |publisher=Printed by E. Flesher, for R. Davis |year=1675 |p=61-62}}</ref>

==== Other contributions ====
Among his major work in and contributions to physics were [[Boyle's law]], the discovery of the role played by air in the propagation of sound, and investigations of the expansive force of freezing water, [[specific gravity|specific gravities]], [[refraction|refractive]] powers, [[crystal]]s, electricity, colour, and [[hydrostatics]].<ref name="EB1911" />