Robert Boyle(1627-1691) Irish physicist and chemist known for his experiments with vacuums
The 14th child of the Earl of Cork, Robert Boyle was born in the family castle in Lismore, Ireland. As a child, he traveled widely in Europe and spent several months in Italy, where he was profoundly influenced by the writings of Galileo.
In the 1640's, Boyle helped found an association of British scholars dedicated to furthering experimental science. Originally named The Invisible College, it received a Royal Charter in 1663 and was renamed the Royal Society.
About 1659, Boyle
became interested in the investigations then being
carried out on the nature of vacuum. He designed and
constructed a new kind of air pump, which he used to
create a near vacuum so that he could study the
phenomenon for himself. Apparatus could be placed in the
globe-like receiver at the top, which had a stopper that
could be made airtight by means of cement. When the globe
was evacuated, flames were extinguished and any animal
placed inside perished.
Using his apparatus, Boyle was able to prove Galileo's assertion that in the absence of air resistance, bodies of different weights fall at the same rate. He also discovered that sound is dependent on air for its transmission, and that even the loudest noise is barely transmitted in a near vacuum.
In another
experiment, Boyle demonstrated the greatest height to
which water could be raised by pumping. By standing on a
roof 30 feet above a reservoir of water and sucking up
the water with a pump, Boyle showed that because of
atmospheric pressure there was a maximum height beyond
which water could not be drawn up.
Boyle's experiments culminated in 1662 in the discovery of what is now known as Boyle's Law, which describes a simple but important inverse relationship between the volume of a gas and its pressure. Boyle found that if a certain quantity of gas was kept at constant temperature and the pressure was doubled, its volume was halved. If the pressure was increased three-fold, the volume was reduced to a third. Boyle's Law is still used today to calculate the way in which the pressure and volume of gases vary.
Taking his discovery even further, Boyle concluded that since air could be compressed, it must be made up tiny particles. Rejecting the belief that all matter consisted of combinations of the four elements -- earth, air, fire, and water -- he proposed instead that matter consisted of "primary particles" that could collect together to form "corpuscles." This idea of "primary particles" forming "corpuscles" anticpated the modern chemist's view of atoms forming bonds with each other to produce molecules.
In 1680, Boyle was offered the presidency of the Royal Society but declined on obscure religious grounds. On his death he left money for a series of scholarly lectures dedicated to "proving the Christian Religion against notorious Infidels." These Boyle Lectures still continue today.
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