Editing Robert Boyle

{{Short description|Anglo-Irish scientist (1627–1691)}}
{{other people}}
{{pp|small=yes}}
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = [[The Honourable]]
| name              = Robert Boyle
| honorific_suffix  = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS|size=100%}}
| image             = The Shannon Portrait of the Hon Robert Boyle.jpg
| caption           = Portrait by [[Johann Kerseboom]], 1689
| birth_date        = {{birth date|df=y|1627|1|25}}
| birth_place       = [[Lismore Castle]], Lismore, County Waterford, Ireland
| death_date        = {{death date and age|df=y|1691|12|31|1627|1|25}}
| death_place       = [[London]], England
| nationality       =
| residence         = 
| fields            = [[Physics]], [[chemistry]]
| workplaces        = [[Royal Society]]
| education         = [[Eton College]]
| alma_mater        = 
| academic_advisors = 
| notable_students  = [[Robert Hooke]]
| known_for         = {{Plainlist|
* [[Boyle's law]]
* [[Boyle temperature]]
* [[Corpuscularianism]]<ref name="Chappell 1994">{{cite book |last=Chappell |first=Vere Claiborne |author-link=Vere Claiborne Chappell |date=1994 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Locke |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=56}}</ref>
* [[Pneumatic chemistry]]
}}
| signature         = 
| footnotes         =  
}}

'''Robert Boyle''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FRS}}<ref name=frs/> ({{IPAc-en|b|ɔɪ|l}}; 25 January 1627 &ndash; 31 December 1691) was an [[Anglo-Irish]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/76496/Robert-Boyle|title=Robert Boyle|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=24 February 2016}}</ref> [[natural philosopher]], [[chemist]], [[physicist]], [[Alchemy|alchemist]] and inventor. Boyle is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist, and therefore one of the founders of modern [[chemistry]], and one of the pioneers of modern experimental [[scientific method]]. He is best known for [[Boyle's law]],<ref name=acottLaw>{{cite journal |author=Acott, Chris |title=The diving "Law-ers": A brief resume of their lives. |journal=[[South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal]] |volume=29 |issue=1 |year=1999 |issn=0813-1988 |oclc=16986801 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/5990 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110402073203/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/5990 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=2 April 2011 |access-date=17 April 2009 }}</ref> which describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute [[pressure]] and [[volume]] of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a [[closed system]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Levine|first1=Ira N.|title=Physical chemistry|date=2008|publisher=McGraw-Hill|location=Dubuque, IA|isbn=9780072538625|page=12|edition=6th}}</ref> Among his works, ''[[The Sceptical Chymist]]'' is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry. He was a devout and pious [[Anglican]] and is noted for his works in theology.<ref>{{cite SEP |url-id=boyle |title=Robert Boyle |last=MacIntosh  |first=J. J.|last2=Anstey |first2=Peter}}</ref><ref>{{MacTutor Biography|id=Boyle}}</ref>

==Biography==
===Early years===
[[File:IRL Dublin St Patrick 03.jpg|thumb|Sculpture of a young boy, thought to be Boyle, on his parents' monument in [[St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin]].]]
Boyle was born at [[Lismore Castle]] in [[County Waterford]], in the far south of [[Ireland]], the seventh son and fourteenth child of [[Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork|the 1st Earl of Cork]] ("the Great Earl of Cork") and [[Catherine Fenton Boyle|Catherine Fenton]].<ref name="EB1911" /> Lord Cork, then known simply as Richard Boyle, had arrived in [[Dublin]] from [[England]] in 1588 during the [[Tudor dynasty|Tudor]] [[plantations of Ireland]] and obtained an appointment as a deputy [[escheator]]. He had amassed enormous wealth and landholdings by the time Robert was born and had been made [[Earl of Cork]] in October 1620. Catherine, his wife, was the daughter of [[Sir Geoffrey Fenton]], the former [[Secretary of State (Ireland)|Secretary of State for Ireland]], who was born in Dublin in 1539, and Alice Weston, the daughter of [[Robert Weston]], who was born in [[Lismore, County Waterford|Lismore]] in 1541.<ref>{{Citation|title=Catherine Fenton|work=Family Ghosts|url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/auden/cgi-bin/auden/individual.php?pid=I4234&ged=auden-bicknell.ged|access-date=9 June 2011|archive-date=21 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921055240/http://www.stanford.edu/group/auden/cgi-bin/auden/individual.php?pid=I4234&ged=auden-bicknell.ged|url-status=dead}}</ref>

As a child, Boyle was raised by a [[wet nurse]],<ref name="McCartneyWhitaker">{{citation|title=Physicists of Ireland: Passion and Precision|first1=Mark|last1=McCartney|first2=Andrew|last2=Whitaker|publisher=Institute of Physics Publishing|year=2003|location=London}}</ref> as were his elder brothers. Boyle received private tutoring in Latin, Greek, and French and when he was eight years old, following the death of his mother, he, and his brother Francis, were sent to [[Eton College]] in England. His father's friend, [[Sir Henry Wotton]], was then the [[Provost (education)|provost]] of the college.<ref name="EB1911" />

During this time, his father hired a private tutor, Robert Carew, who had knowledge of [[Irish language|Irish]], to act as a private tutor to his sons in Eton. However, "only Mr. Robert sometimes desires it [Irish] and is a little entered in it", but despite the "many reasons" given by Carew to draw their attention to it, "they practise the French and Latin but they affect not the Irish".<ref name="canny">{{citation|first=Nicholas|last=Canny|title=The Upstart Earl: a study of the social and mental world of Richard Boyle|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge|year=1982|page=127}}</ref> After spending over three years at Eton, Robert travelled abroad with a French tutor. They visited Italy in 1641 and remained in [[Florence]] during the winter of that year studying the "paradoxes of the great star-gazer", the elderly [[Galileo Galilei]].<ref name="EB1911" />

===Middle years===
[[File:Templeofrosycross.png|alt=Emblematic image of a Rosicrucian College; illustration from Speculum sophicum Rhodo-stauroticum, a 1618 work by Theophilus Schweighardt. Frances Yates identifies this as the "Invisible College of the Rosy Cross. Robert Boyle was a member of this association.|thumb|Emblematic image of a [[Rosicrucian]] College; illustration from ''Speculum sophicum Rhodo-stauroticum'', a 1618 work by [[Theophilus Schweighardt]]. [[Frances Yates]] identifies this as the "Invisible College of the Rosy Cross.  Robert Boyle was a member of this association. ]]
Robert returned to England from [[continental Europe]] in mid-1644 with a keen interest in scientific research.<ref>See biographies of Robert Boyle at [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=522], {{cite web |title=Robert Boyle |url=http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/ci/1992/Boyle.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516022301/http://www.woodrow.org/teachers/ci/1992/Boyle.html |archive-date=16 May 2008 |access-date=6 May 2008}}, {{cite web |title=Boyle summary |url=http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Boyle.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080413025044/http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Boyle.html |archive-date=13 April 2008 |access-date=6 May 2008}} and [https://books.google.com/books?id=fjDXtalPeesC&pg=PT24].</ref> His father, [[Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork|Lord Cork]], had died the previous year and had left him the manor of [[Stalbridge]] in Dorset as well as substantial estates in [[County Limerick]] in Ireland that he had acquired. Robert then made his residence at [[Stalbridge#Stalbridge House|Stalbridge House]], between 1644 and 1652, and settled in a laboratory where he conducted many experiments.<ref>{{Cite web|year=2014|title=BBC - History - Robert Boyle|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/boyle_robert.shtml|access-date=26 September 2021|website=[[BBC Online]]}}</ref> From that time, Robert devoted his life to [[science|scientific]] research and soon took a prominent place in the band of enquirers, known as the "[[Invisible College]]", who devoted themselves to the cultivation of the "new philosophy". They met frequently in London, often at [[Gresham College]], and some of the members also had meetings at [[Oxford]].<ref name="EB1911" />
Having made several visits to his Irish estates beginning in 1647, Robert moved to Ireland in 1652 but became frustrated at his inability to make progress in his chemical work. In one letter, he described Ireland as "a barbarous country where chemical spirits were so misunderstood and chemical instruments so unprocurable that it was hard to have any Hermetic thoughts in it."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Silver|first1=Brian L.|title=The ascent of science|date=2000|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-513427-8|page=114}}</ref>
[[File:All Souls College, Oxford - geograph.org.uk - 3247461.jpg|alt=Boyle's arm displayed in the Great Quadrangle of All Souls College, Oxford|thumb|Boyle's arms (shown on the right right) displayed in the Great Quadrangle of All Souls College, Oxford]]
[[All Souls College, Oxford|All Souls]], [[University of Oxford|Oxford University]], shows the arms of Boyle's family in the colonnade of the Great Quadrangle, opposite the arms of the [[Rowland Hill (MP)|Hill]] family of [[Shropshire]], close by a sundial designed by Boyle's friend [[Christopher Wren]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=History of Science Museum Oxford University |title=The Virtual Oxford Science Walk |url=https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/features/walk/loc5.htm |archive-url=}}</ref>

In 1654, Boyle left Ireland for Oxford to pursue his work more successfully. An inscription can be found on the wall of [[University College, Oxford]], the [[High Street, Oxford|High Street]] at [[Oxford]] (now the location of the [[Shelley Memorial]]), marking the spot where Cross Hall stood until the early 19th century. It was here that Boyle rented rooms from the wealthy apothecary who owned the Hall.

Reading in 1657 of [[Otto von Guericke]]'s [[vacuum pump]], he set himself, with the assistance of [[Robert Hooke]], to devise improvements in its construction. His "machina Boyleana" or "Pneumatical Engine" was finished in 1659.

Among the critics of the views put forward in this book was a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]], [[Francis Line]] (1595–1675), and it was while answering his objections that Boyle made his first mention of [[Boyle's law|the law]] that the volume of a gas varies inversely to the pressure of the gas, which among English-speaking people is usually called ''Boyle's law'', after his name.<ref name=EB1911/> The person who originally formulated the hypothesis was [[Henry Power]] in 1661. Boyle in 1662 included a reference to a paper written by Power, but mistakenly attributed it to [[Richard Towneley]]. In continental Europe, the hypothesis is sometimes attributed to [[Edme Mariotte]], although he did not publish it until 1676 and was probably aware of Boyle's work at the time.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Brush
  | first = Stephen G.
  | title = The Kinetic Theory of Gases: An Anthology of Classic Papers with Historical Commentary
  | publisher = [[Imperial College Press]]
  | series = History of Modern Physical Sciences Vol 1
  | year = 2003
  | isbn = 978-1860943478
  }}{{page needed|date=June 2020}}</ref>

[[File:Royal Society - Robert Boyle notebook.jpg|thumb|right|One of Robert Boyle's notebooks (1690–1691) held by the [[Royal Society]] of London. The Royal Society archives holds 46 volumes of philosophical, scientific and theological papers by Boyle and seven volumes of his correspondence.]]

In 1663 the Invisible College became [[The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge]], and the charter of incorporation granted by [[Charles II of England]] named Boyle a member of the council. In 1680 he was elected president of the society but declined the honour from a scruple about oaths.<ref name=EB1911/>

He made a "wish list" of 24 possible [[invention]]s which included "the [[life extension|prolongation of life]]", the "[[mechanical flight|art of flying]]", "[[artificial light|perpetual light]]", "making armour light and extremely hard", "a ship to sail with all winds, and a ship [[compartment (ship)|not to be sunk]]", "practicable and certain way of finding [[longitude#Determination|longitude]]s", "potent drugs to alter or exalt imagination, waking, memory and other functions and [[analgesic|appease pain]], procure [[hypnotic|innocent sleep]], harmless dreams, etc.". All but a few of the 24 have come true.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7798012/Robert-Boyles-prophetic-scientific-predictions-from-the-17th-century-go-on-display-at-the-Royal-Society.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7798012/Robert-Boyles-prophetic-scientific-predictions-from-the-17th-century-go-on-display-at-the-Royal-Society.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Robert Boyle's prophetic scientific predictions from the 17th century go on display at the Royal Society|date=3 June 2010|work=Telegraph.co.uk|access-date=24 February 2016}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Robert Boyle's Wish list|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7798201/Robert-Boyles-Wish-list.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7798201/Robert-Boyles-Wish-list.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=11 October 2016|work=Telegraph.co.uk}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | headerimage= | audio1 = [https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/podcast/the-almost-forgotten-story-of-katherine-jones-lady-ranelagh “The Almost Forgotten Story of Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh”], ''Distillations'' Podcast, [[Science History Institute]]}}

In 1668 he left Oxford for [[London]] where he resided at the house of his elder sister [[Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh|Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh]], in [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]].<ref name=EB1911/> He experimented in the laboratory she had in her home and attended her salon of intellectuals interested in the sciences. The siblings maintained "a lifelong intellectual partnership, where brother and sister shared medical remedies, promoted each other's scientific ideas, and edited each other's manuscripts."<ref name=chf>{{cite web |url= http://www.pachs.net/events/archive/such_a_sister_became_such_a_brother_lady_ranelaghs_influence_on_robert_boyl/ |title= 'Such a Sister Became Such a Brother': Lady Ranelagh's Influence on Robert Boyle |first= Michelle |last= DiMeo |date= 4 February 2014 |access-date= 5 February 2014 |publisher= Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science |archive-date= 2 December 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161202040430/http://www.pachs.net/events/archive/such_a_sister_became_such_a_brother_lady_ranelaghs_influence_on_robert_boyl/ |url-status= dead }}</ref> His contemporaries widely acknowledged Katherine's influence on his work, but later historiographers dropped discussion of her accomplishments and relationship to her brother from their histories.

===Later years===
[[File:boyle-hooke.jpg|thumb|right|[[Shelley Memorial#Boyle-Hooke plaque|Plaque]] at the site of Boyle and Hooke's experiments in Oxford]]
In 1669 his health, never very strong, began to fail seriously and he gradually withdrew from his public engagements, ceasing his communications to the Royal Society, and advertising his desire to be excused from receiving guests, "unless upon occasions very extraordinary", on Tuesday and Friday forenoon, and Wednesday and Saturday afternoon. In the leisure thus gained he wished to "recruit his spirits, range his papers", and prepare some important chemical investigations which he proposed to leave "as a kind of Hermetic legacy to the studious disciples of that art", but of which he did not make known the nature. His health became still worse in 1691,<ref name=EB1911/> and he died on 31 December that year,<ref>{{cite book|last=Hunter|first=Michael|title=Robert Boyle Reconsidered|year=2003|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521892674|page=xvii|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTq1Kr7fr6QC&pg=PR17|edition=Reprint}}</ref> just a week after the death of his sister, Katherine, in whose home he had lived and with whom he had shared scientific pursuits for more than twenty years. Boyle died from paralysis. He was buried in the churchyard of [[St Martin-in-the-Fields]], his funeral sermon being preached by his friend, Bishop [[Gilbert Burnet]].<ref name=EB1911/> In his will, Boyle endowed a series of lectures that came to be known as the [[Boyle Lectures]].

==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" />

==Theological interests==
In addition to philosophy, Boyle devoted much time to theology, showing a very decided leaning to the practical side and an indifference to controversial [[polemic]]s. At the [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]] of [[Charles II of England]] in 1660, he was favourably received at court and in 1665 would have received the provostship of Eton College had he agreed to take holy orders, but this he refused to do on the ground that his writings on religious subjects would have greater weight coming from a layman than a paid minister of the Church.<ref name=EB1911/>

Moreover, Boyle incorporated his scientific interests into his theology, believing that natural philosophy could provide powerful evidence for the existence of God. In works such as ''Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things'' (1688),{{sfn | ''U-M Library Digital Collections''}} for instance, he criticised contemporary philosophers – such as [[René Descartes]] – who denied that the study of nature could reveal much about God. Instead, Boyle argued that natural philosophers could use the design apparently on display in some parts of nature to demonstrate God's involvement with the world. He also attempted to tackle complex theological questions using methods derived from his scientific practices. In ''Some Physico-Theological Considerations about the Possibility of the Resurrection'' (1675), he used a chemical experiment known as the reduction to the pristine state as part of an attempt to demonstrate the physical possibility of the [[Resurrection of the dead|resurrection of the body]]. Throughout his career, Boyle tried to show that science could lend support to Christianity.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wragge-Morley|first=Alexander|title=Robert Boyle and the representation of imperceptible entities|journal=The British Journal for the History of Science|volume=51|pages=1–24|doi=10.1017/S0007087417000899|pmid=29103389|issn=0007-0874|year=2018|issue=1|s2cid=4334846|url=https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10030920/}}</ref>

As a director of the [[British East India Company|East India Company]]<ref>{{A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature|wstitle=Boyle, The Hon. Robert|inline=1}}</ref> he spent large sums in promoting the spread of Christianity in the East, contributing liberally to [[missionary]] societies and to the expenses of translating the Bible or portions of it into various languages.<ref name=EB1911/> Boyle supported the policy that the Bible should be available in the vernacular language of the people. An [[Irish language]] version of the [[New Testament]] was published in 1602 but was rare in Boyle's adult life. In 1680–85 Boyle personally financed the printing of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments, in Irish.<ref>{{citation|first= Talbot|last= Baines Reed |title= A History of the Old English Letter Foundries|year=1887|url= https://archive.org/details/ahistoryoldengl00reedgoog/ | pages = 189–90|publisher= Elliot Stock }}. Also {{Citation | editor-first = S.L | editor-last = Greenslade | year = 1963 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IDFBru3-C8MC&pg=PA172 | title = The Cambridge History of the Bible: The West from the Reformation to the Present Day | pages = 172–73| publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 9780521290166 }}.</ref> In this respect, Boyle's attitude to the Irish language differed from the [[Protestant Ascendancy]] class in Ireland at the time, which was generally hostile to the language and largely opposed the use of Irish (not only as a language of religious worship).<ref>{{cite book|first= Adrian |last=Hastings|title= The Construction of Nationhood: Ethnicity, Religion, and Nationalism |publisher= [[Cambridge University]] |location= Cambridge |year= 1997 |page= 86}}</ref>

Boyle also had a [[monogenism|monogenist]] perspective about [[race (classification of humans)|race]] origin. He was a pioneer in studying races, and he believed that all human beings, no matter how diverse their physical differences, came from the same source: [[Adam and Eve]]. He studied reported stories of parents giving birth to different coloured [[albinos]], so he concluded that Adam and Eve were originally white and that Caucasians could give birth to different coloured races. Boyle also extended the theories of [[Robert Hooke]] and [[Isaac Newton]] about colour and light via optical projection (in [[physics]]) into discourses of [[polygenism|polygenesis]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boyle |first1=Jen E. |title=Anamorphosis in Early Modern Literature: Mediation and Affect |date=2010 |publisher=Ashgate |isbn=978-1409400691 |location=Farnham, Surrey, [England] |page=74}}</ref> speculating that maybe these differences were due to "[[:wikt:seminal#Adjective|seminal]] impressions". Taking this into account, it might be considered that he envisioned a good explanation for [[complexion]] at his time, due to the fact that now we know that skin colour is disposed of by [[genetic code|genes]]. Boyle's writings mention that at his time, for "European Eyes", beauty was not measured so much in [[colour of skin]], but in "stature, comely symmetry of the parts of the body, and good features in the face".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://gutenberg.org/1/4/5/0/14504 | title=Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours (1664) (ebook) | publisher=Gutenberg Project | access-date=11 October 2016 | website=www.gutenberg.net | pages=160–61}}</ref> Various members of the scientific community rejected his views and described them as "disturbing" or "amusing".<ref>{{cite book |author=Palmeri, Frank |title=Humans and Other Animals in Eighteenth-Century British Culture: Representation, Hybridity, Ethics |year=2006 |pages=49–67}}</ref>

In his will, Boyle provided money for a series of lectures to defend the [[Christianity|Christian religion]] against those he considered "notorious [[infidel]]s, namely [[Atheism|atheists]], [[Deism|deists]], [[Paganism|pagans]], Jews and Muslims", with the provision that controversies between Christians were not to be mentioned (see [[Boyle Lectures]]).<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.stmarylebow.co.uk/#/the-boyle-lecture/4535974239 | title = The Boyle Lecture | work = St. Marylebow Church}}</ref><ref name=EB1911/>

== Awards and honours ==
[[File:Royal Society of Chemistry - Robert Boyle Prize for Analytical Science - 2014 - Andy Mabbett - 01.JPG|thumb|The 2014 [[Robert Boyle Prize for Analytical Science]] medal]]
[[File:Statue of Robert Boyle.jpg|thumb|left|Statue of Boyle in [[Lismore, County Waterford]], Ireland]]

As a founder of the Royal Society, he was elected a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 1663|Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1663]].<ref name="frs">{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316060617/https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/|archive-date=16 March 2015|url=https://royalsociety.org/about-us/fellowship/fellows/|publisher=Royal Society|location=London|title=Fellows of the Royal Society}}</ref> [[Boyle's law]] is named in his honour. The [[Royal Society of Chemistry]] issues a [[Robert Boyle Prize for Analytical Science]], named in his honour. The Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence in Ireland, inaugurated in 1899, is awarded jointly by the [[Royal Dublin Society]] and [[The Irish Times]].<ref>{{cite web|title=RDS–Irish Times Boyle Medal for Scientific Excellence|url=http://www.rds.ie/boylemedal|website=RDS.ie|access-date=11 October 2016|archive-date=6 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506183159/http://www.rds.ie/boylemedal|url-status=dead}}</ref> Launched in 2012, The Robert Boyle Summer School organized by the [[Waterford Institute of Technology]] with support from [[Lismore Castle]], is held annually to honor the heritage of Robert Boyle.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Robert Boyle Summer School|url=http://www.robertboyle.ie/|access-date=11 October 2016}}</ref>

==Important works==
[[File:Sceptical chymist 1661 Boyle Title page AQ18 (3).jpg|thumb|right|Title page of ''The Sceptical Chymist'' (1661)]]
[[File:Boyle'sSelfFlowingFlask.png|thumb|Boyle's self-flowing flask, a [[perpetual motion machine]], appears to fill itself through [[siphon]] action ("hydrostatic perpetual motion") and involves the "hydrostatic paradox".<ref>{{cite book | title = Perpetual Motion: The History of an Obsession | author = Arthur W. J. G. Ord-Hume | publisher = Adventures Unlimited Press | year = 2006 | isbn = 1-931882-51-7 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=022yYXnS_GQC&q=boyle%27s-perpetual-motion-scheme&pg=PA94 }}</ref> This is not possible in reality; a siphon requires its "output" to be lower than the "input".]]
[[File:Boyle-2-2.jpg|thumb|Title page of "''New Experiments and Observations upon Cold"'' (1665)]]
The following are some of the more important of his works:<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Boyle, Robert|inline=1}}</ref>
* 1660 – ''New Experiments Physico-Mechanical: Touching the Spring of the Air and their Effects''
* 1661 – ''[[The Sceptical Chymist]]''
* 1662 – Whereunto is Added a Defence of the Authors Explication of the Experiments, Against the Obiections of [[Franciscus Linus]] and [[Thomas Hobbes]] (a book-length addendum to the second edition of ''New Experiments Physico-Mechanical'')
* 1663 – ''Considerations touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy'' (followed by a second part in 1671)
* 1664 – ''Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours, with Observations on a Diamond that Shines in the Dark''
* 1665 – ''New Experiments and Observations upon Cold''
* 1666 – ''Hydrostatical Paradoxes''<ref>Cf. Hunter (2009), p. 147. "It forms a kind of sequel to ''Spring of the Air'' ... but although Boyle notes he might have published it as part of an appendix to that work, it formed a self-contained whole, dealing with atmospheric pressure with particular reference to liquid masses"</ref>
* 1666 – ''Origin of Forms and Qualities according to the Corpuscular Philosophy''. (A continuation of his work on the spring of air demonstrated that a reduction in ambient pressure could lead to bubble formation in living tissue. This description of a [[Viperidae|viper]] in a [[vacuum]] was the first recorded description of [[decompression sickness]].)<ref name=acottHx>{{cite journal |last=Acott |first=C. |title=A brief history of diving and decompression illness. |journal=South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society Journal |volume=29 |issue=2 |year=1999 |issn=0813-1988 |oclc=16986801 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627230124/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/6004 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=27 June 2008 |access-date=17 April 2009 }}</ref>
* 1669 – ''A Continuation of New Experiments Physico-mechanical, Touching the Spring and Weight of the Air, and Their Effects''
* 1670 – ''Tracts about the Cosmical Qualities of Things, the Temperature of the Subterraneal and Submarine Regions, the Bottom of the Sea, &tc. with an Introduction to the History of Particular Qualities''
* 1672 – ''Origin and Virtues of Gems''
* 1673 – Essays of the Strange Subtilty, Great Efficacy, Determinate Nature of Effluviums
* 1674 – Two volumes of tracts on the Saltiness of the Sea, [[Suspicions about the Hidden Realities of the Air]], Cold, Celestial Magnets 
* 1674 – ''Animadversions upon Mr. Hobbes's Problemata de Vacuo''
* 1676 – Experiments and Notes about the Mechanical Origin or Production of Particular Qualities, including some notes on electricity and magnetism
* 1678 – ''Observations upon an artificial Substance that Shines without any Preceding Illustration''
* 1680 – ''The Aerial [[Noctiluca]]''
* 1682 – New Experiments and Observations upon the Icy Noctiluca (a further continuation of his work on the air)
* 1684 – ''Memoirs for the Natural History of the Human Blood''
* 1685 – Short Memoirs for the Natural Experimental History of [[Mineral Water]]s
* 1686 – ''A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature''
* 1690 – ''Medicina Hydrostatica''
* 1691 – ''Experimenta et Observationes Physicae''

Among his religious and philosophical writings were:
* 1648 (1659) – ''Some Motives and Incentives to the Love of God'', often known by its running head ''Seraphic Love'', written in 1648, but not published until 1659
* 1663 – ''Some Considerations Touching the Style of the H''[''oly''] ''Scriptures''
* 1664 – ''Excellence of Theology compared with Natural Philosophy''
* 1665 – Occasional Reflections upon Several Subjects, which was ridiculed by [[Jonathan Swift|Swift]] in [[Meditation Upon a Broomstick]], and by [[Samuel Butler (1612–1680)|Butler]] in An Occasional Reflection on Dr Charlton's Feeling a Dog's Pulse at Gresham College
* 1675 – Some Considerations about the Reconcileableness of Reason and Religion, with a Discourse about the Possibility of the Resurrection
* 1687 – [[Theodora and Didymus|''The Martyrdom of Theodora, and of Didymus'']], [[Theodora (Handel)#Context, analysis, and performance history|major source for Handel's Oratorio ''Theodora'']]
* 1690 – ''[[The Christian Virtuoso]]''

==See also==
* {{annotated link|Ambrose Godfrey}}, phosphorus manufacturer who started as Boyle's assistant
* {{annotated link|An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump|''An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump''}}, a painting of a demonstration of one of Boyle's experiments
* {{annotated link|Boyle temperature}}, thermodynamic quantity named after Boyle
* {{annotated link|George Starkey}}
* {{annotated link|Invisible College}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* M. A. Stewart (ed.), ''Selected Philosophical Papers of Robert Boyle'', Indianapolis: Hackett, 1991.
* [[John Farquhar Fulton|Fulton, John F.]], ''A Bibliography of the Honourable Robert Boyle, Fellow of the Royal Society''. Second edition. Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, 1961.
* [[Michael Hunter (historian)|Hunter, Michael]], ''Boyle : Between God and Science'', New Haven : Yale University Press, 2009. {{ISBN|978-0-300-12381-4}}
* Hunter, Michael, [https://books.google.com/books?id=3NxSpj_4vp4C ''Robert Boyle, 1627–91: Scrupulosity and Science''], The Boydell Press, 2000
* Principe, Lawrence, [https://books.google.com/books?id=nsrrMF81RHEC ''The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest''], Princeton University Press, 1998
* Shapin, Stephen; Schaffer, Simon, ''[[Leviathan and the Air-Pump]].''
* Ben-Zaken, Avner, "Exploring the Self, Experimenting Nature", in [https://www.amazon.com/Reading-Hayy-Ibn-Yaqzan-Cross-Cultural-Autodidacticism/dp/0801897394/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1343310784&sr=8-3&keywords=avner+ben-zaken ''Reading Hayy Ibn-Yaqzan: A Cross-Cultural History of Autodidacticism''] (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011), pp.&nbsp;101–126. {{ISBN|978-0801897399}}

;Boyle's published works online
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/22914 ''The Sceptical Chymist''] – Project Gutenberg
* [http://www.farlang.com/gemstones/boyle-virtue-gems/page_001 ''Essay on the Virtue of Gems''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070819095145/http://www.farlang.com/gemstones/boyle-virtue-gems/page_001 |date=19 August 2007 }} – Gem and Diamond Foundation
* [http://www.farlang.com/gemstones/boyle-experiments-colours/page_001 ''Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820063156/http://www.farlang.com/gemstones/boyle-experiments-colours/page_001 |date=20 August 2007 }} – Gem and Diamond Foundation
* [https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14504 ''Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours''] – Project Gutenberg
* [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/boyle/boyle_papers/boylepapers_index.htm Boyle Papers] University of London
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=i3g5AAAAcAAJ ''Hydrostatical Paradoxes''] – Google Books
* {{cite web | title=A disquisition about the final causes of natural things wherein it is inquir'd, whether, and (if at all) with what cautions, a naturalist should admit them? By T.H. R.B. Fellow of the Royal Society. To which are subjoyn'd, by way of appendix some uncommon observations about vitiated sight. By the same author. | website=U-M Library Digital Collections | date=11 October 1688 | url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo2;idno=A77179.0001.001 | ref={{sfnref | U-M Library Digital Collections}} | access-date=2024-04-27}}

==External links==
{{Library resources box|by=yes|onlinebooksby=yes|viaf=51698379}}
{{commons}}
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/boyle/ Robert Boyle], ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy''
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Robert Boyle}}
* {{BHL author|86092}}
* [http://www.earlymoderntexts.com Readable versions of Excellence of the mechanical hypothesis, Excellence of theology, and Origin of forms and qualities]
* [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/boyle/ Robert Boyle Project, Birkbeck, University of London]
* [http://cogweb.ucla.edu/EarlyModern/Boyle_1661.html Summary juxtaposition of Boyle's ''The Sceptical Chymist'' and his ''The Christian Virtuoso'']
* [http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1997/PSCF3-97Woodall.html The Relationship between Science and Scripture in the Thought of Robert Boyle]
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=nsrrMF81RHEC Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest: Including Boyle's "Lost" Dialogue on the Transmutation of Metals], [[Princeton University Press]], 1998, {{ISBN|0-691-05082-1}}
* Robert Boyle's (1690) [http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/color/id/28555 ''Experimenta et considerationes de coloribus''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181126134925/http://lhldigital.lindahall.org/cdm/ref/collection/color/id/28555 |date=26 November 2018 }} – digital facsimile from the [[Linda Hall Library]]

{{Underwater diving|divmed}}
{{Age of Enlightenment}}
{{Alchemy}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyle, Robert}}
[[Category:Robert Boyle| ]]
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