Biography of Robert Boyle

Volumes and pressures

25 January 1627
30 December 1691
Robert Boyle was born in Lismore, County Waterford (Ireland) in a Protestant family. His father was Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork, who had left England in 1588 at the age of 22 years, to go to Ireland. Appointed clerk of the Council of Munster by Elizabeth I in 1600, they bought the estates of Sir walter Raleigh, in counties Cork, Waterford and Tipperary two years later. Robert's mother, Catherine Fenton, was the second wife of Richard Boyle, being the first death in less than a year after the birth of their first child. Robert was their seventh son (and the fourteenth guy), in all, there were fifteen children (twelve of the fifteen survived childhood). Richard Boyle had sixty years and Catherine Boyle forty, when Robert was born. Robert Boyle was lucky to have as a father, the richest man in Britain, though, someone should say, the Earl of Cork had conquered his fortune with shares sometimes dubious. He was imprisoned in England, under charges of embezzlement, the first time, and later was fined heavily for possession of defective titles for some of his estates. The Earl of Cork and his wife believed the best way to educate children, before they began their formal education, had to turn them away from their parents. Robert was sent away to be raised in the campaign, while his father continued to aim at higher political successes. The Earl of Cork he lived for four years at his home in Dublin. He was appointed High Chief of Justice, in 1629, and high Treasurer, in 1631. During this time in Dublin, Robert's mother died and, shortly thereafter, Robert returned from his living room, with the nurse of the campaign, to be reunited with his family. Robert was sent, along with one of his brothers, to study at Eton College, England in 1635. At that time, the school was becoming fashionable, as a place where important people sent their children. The headmaster was John Harrison, and the two young brothers Boyle lived long in his home. During this period at Eton, Boyle's education was clearly good. He was popular both for its principal, both with his teammates. Anyway, maybe he had received too many special services from Harrison, and Harrison, when he retired, Boyle seemed unable to adapt to the discipline and education, that the new principal brought to the school. After realizing that neither the one nor the other of her children were going well at school, under the new master, the Earl of Cork sent his children away from Eton, in November of 1638. Later, Boyle had, as a private tutor, one of his father's chaplains. At age twelve, Boyle was sent by his father, with one of his brothers, on a European tour. From Dieppe, they went to Paris, then in Lyon, before reaching Geneva. In Geneva, Boyle studied with a private tutor, French, Latin, rhetoric and religion. He also used the outdoors, in the afternoons, playing tennis and acting. Perhaps, the most important thing of all is that he began to study mathematics. In 1641, Boyle learned Italian, in preparation for the visit of that country. In September of that year the boy and his guardian were in Venice, then in early 1642, moved to Florence. Galileo died in his villa at Arcetri, near Florence, while Boyle lived in the city. He was particularly affected by this event, and studied thoroughly the work of Galileo. If no event formed before Boyle's life and directed towards science, then this was the first. Of course his Protestant setting, with a deep-rooted fear of the Jesuits, contributed to his sympathy for Galileo and his treatment by the Roman Catholic Church. Boyle became a strong advocate of the philosophy of Galileo and believed strongly, from this time onwards, the new approach to study the world through mathematics and mechanics. In may 1642 Boyle and his teacher were in Marseille to wait for money from the father of Boyle, so that he could complete the journey home. This did not arrive, he arrived only a letter, from his father, which explained that a rebellion in Munster was absorbing his time and his money.
He sent 250 pounds to pay for the return of Boyle, but the money never reached him. Boyle returned to Geneva, where he seems to have lived chiefly by his teacher's salary, while his father continued to fight the Irish to Lismore Castle. King Charles I negotiated a cease fire with the Catholic rebels, who fought against the Earl of Cork, so he had to bring back its troops, in England, to help him in the civil war that had broken out there. The Earl of Cork never recovered from the fact that Charles I had treated the Irish as such, and died shortly after, in September 1643. Robert Boyle was still living in Geneva, when his father died. In the summer of 1644, he sold some jewelry and used the money to finance his journey back to England. Returning to England he lived for a while with his sister Katherine. She was thirteen years older than him and was a person of some importance, married Viscount Ranelagh. England was in a chaotic state, the civil war, which was started in 1642, there was fighting between Charles and Parliament. Charles moved to Oxford, while Parliament had signed an alliance with the Scots. In Exchange for military support, he was promised the Scots to found a Presbyterian Church. Some battles, in 1644, left both the King and the Parliament in disarray. Boyle had properties in England, Stalbridge, bequeathed to him by his father, but the situation in the country made things difficult. Although Boyle surveyed his new home after four months, it took much longer before it was possible to relocate there. The transfer took place in March of 1646, having spent a lot of time with her sister and I made a trip back to France, to repay debts to his tutor, who continued to live there. Although Boyle didn't plan to spend much time in Stalbridge, he remained there for about six years. He probably studied harder than what he himself admits in a letter sent to his old teacher in France, in October 1646: "Because of my studies, I had a chance to continue, but through objects and fragmentary, when free time and my opportunities have allowed me. I've been busy doodling several small essays both in verse, both in prose, on certain matters. The other Humanities, in which I have applied, are natural philosophy, mechanics and the economy, according to the principles of our new college of philosophy ...". Later, in the letter, Boyle also calls this "new philosophical college", "invisible College". It is the company, which will soon become the "Royal Society of London", and was the only contact between Boyle and the world of science, while living his solitary life in Stalbridge. It's a discussion in the Invisible College which led Boyle to read the "Clavis Mathematica by Oughtred and also the works of Marsenne and Gassendi. Boyle was favorable, since his visit to Italy, to the ideas of Copernicus and now, still believed more deeply in these views, along with a deep belief in the atomic theory of the fact. This period was difficult for Boyle because he tried hard not to be forced to take part in the civil war.
His loyalty was somewhat divided: his father had been a faithful follower of the King, his sister Katherine, a faithful member of Parliament. Basically, he sympathized with both sides, but the end result turned to his advantage. Charles I was defeated and executed, but, in 1650, Charles II landed in Scotland and attempted to regain power. Cromwell, leading parliamentary forces, defeated the Scots in 1650, again in 1651, and the Irish in 1652. Boyle went to Ireland in 1652, to take care of his possessions. He became a very wealthy man, when Cromwell fanned out Irish lands to English settlers. From that period onward, he was able to devote himself entirely to science, no need to earn money. It's fair to point out, however, that Boyle was a man very generous with his money, and many benefited from his generosity. Boyle met John Wilkins, the head of the Invisible College, in London, when he paid a visit there in 1653. At that time, Wilkins had just been appointed as Dean of Wadham College, Oxford, and was planning to expand the Invisible College from there. He encouraged strongly Boyle to join them, in Oxford, and invited him to live in the College. Boyle decided to go to Oxford, but preferred not to accept the offer of Wilkins accommodation, choosing instead to adapt its personal rooms, where he could perform his scientific experiments. At Oxford, he joined a group of scientists from advanced search, which included John Wilkins, John Wallis, Savilian Professor of geometry, it was Seth Ward, who was the Savilian Professor of astronomy, and Christopher Wren, who succeeded Ward as Savilian Professor of astronomy, in 1661. By 1654, Boyle lived in Oxford, although he never held any university place. He gave valuable contributions to physics and chemistry and is, in fact, best known for Boyle's law (sometimes called the Mariotte's Law), which describes an ideal gas. Boyle's law appears in an appendix, written in 1662, his work "New Experiments Touching the Spring of the Physio-Mechanicall, Air and its Effects" (1660). The text of 1660 was the result of three years of experiments with an air pump, with the help of Hooke, who employed him as his assistant. The device was designed by Hooke, and using it, Boyle had achieved a series of important results. He had demonstrated, among other things, that the sound does not travel in a vacuum, had proved that the flame requires air to survive and had investigated the elastic properties of air. The Appendix of 1662 contained only Boyle's law, which relates the volume and pressure in a gas, but it also contained the defense of Boyle's work on the vacuum, which appeared in the main text. Many scientists, particularly Hobbes, had argued that a vacuum could not exist, and they had asserted that Boyle's findings, obtained by the vacuum pump should be the result of a yet unknown force. Another book by Boyle, in 1666, was titled "hydrostatic Paradox": it's "a stinging criticism of the work of Pascal on acute observations on the experimental method, hydrostatic full of Pascal, is a presentation of a number of important and ingenious experiments on fluid pressure".
In "the sceptical chemist" (1661), Boyle discusses Aristotle's view of the four elements earth, air, fire and water. He held that matter was composed of corpuscles, diverse, consisting of different configurations of primary particles. Although many ideas in this work were made by Descartes, on one aspect he was fundamentally disagree with him. Boyle's ideas, that the primary particles move freely in fluids, less freely in solids, stemmed from Descartes. However, Descartes did not believe in a vacuum, rather he believed in a total ether divulged. Boyle had conducted many experiments that had led to believe in a vacuum and, had not found any experimental proof evident of the ether, to replace that idea. He followed her Descartes in his theory that the world was basically a complex system, ruled by a small number of simple mathematical laws. Considering the optics, especially the color, Boyle was not so successful. He published "experiments and considerations touching colours", in 1644, but readily admitted that Hooke's work of 1665 was much higher and that ideas of Newton, published in 1672, should replace her. Boyle was a member of the Royal Society. He published his results on the physical properties of air through this company. His work on chemistry was aimed to establish it as a mathematical science based on a mechanistic theory of matter. It is for this reason that we decided to include Boyle in this archive of mathematicians because, although it has developed no mathematical idea alone, was one of the first to assert that all knowledge should be developed as an application of mathematics. Although others before him had applied mathematics to physics, Boyle was one of the first to have extended the application of mathematics to chemistry that tried to develop as a science complex, whose appearance was simply the result of simple mathematical laws applied to simple fundamental particles. In 1668, Boyle left Oxford and moved in with his sister, Lady Ranelagh in London.
There, he became a neighbour of Barrow, but seemed to have more interests in common with another neighbor, Thomas Sydenham, a physicist. In 1669, the husband of his sister died. Many were unanimous on the importance of finding a wife for Boyle. Wallis came up with a woman, he considered particularly suitable for being the wife of Boyle. It seems that Boyle has successfully avoided these wedding plans. In June 1670, he had an attack that left him paralyzed, but slowly he regained his health. He continued to work and to receive guests at his home in London. The visitors were so frequent, that he had to decline the requests, so have time to continue his scientific research, which he carried out with the help of many and excellent assistants. In 1680, he declined to serve as President of the Royal Society. He explained that his motives were religious, because he could not pay the necessary oaths. The religious side of Boyle has always been a major force in his life. Robert Boyle died in London on 30 December 1691 at the age of 64 years. In his will, Boyle sponsored a series of lectures that became known as "Boyle Lectures". Today on a wall of the University College in the High Street in Oxford an inscription reads: "In a House on this site | between 1655 and 1668 lived | ROBERT BOYLE | There he discovered BOYLE's law | and he also experimented with a | AIR PUMP designed by his assistant | ROBERT HOOKE | Inventor scientist and architect | who built a microscope | with which first identified
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.