Robert Boyle (January 25, 1627 – December 30, 1692) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, noted for his work in physics and chemistry. Although his research and personal philosophy clearly has its roots in the alchemical tradition, he is largely regarded today as the first modern chemist. Among his works The Sceptical Chymist is seen as a cornerstone book in the field of chemistry.
He was born at Lismore Castle, in the province of Munster, Ireland, as the seventh son and fourteenth child of Richard Boyle, the ‘Great Earl of Cork’. While still a child he learned to speak Latin, Greek and French, and he was only eight years old when he was sent to Eton College, of which his father’s friend, Sir Henry Wotton, was then provost. After spending over three years at the college, he went to travel abroad with a French tutor. Nearly two years were passed in Geneva; visiting Italy in 1641, he remained during the winter of that year in Florence, studying the ‘paradoxes of the great star-gazer’ Galileo Galilei, who died within a league (3 miles) of the city early in 1642.
Returning to England in 1645 he found that his father was dead and had left him the manor of Stalbridge in Dorset, together with estates in Ireland. From that time he gave up his life to study and scientific research, and soon took a prominent place in the band of inquirers, known as the ‘Invisible College,’ who devoted themselves to the cultivation of the ‘new philosophy.’ They met frequently in London, often at Gresham College; some of the members also had meetings at Oxford, and in that city Boyle went to reside in 1654. Reading in 1657 of Otto von Guericke’s air-pump, he set himself with the assistance of Robert Hooke to devise improvements in its construction, and with the result, the ‘Pneumatical Engine,’ finished in 1659, he began a series of experiments on the properties of air.
About 1689 his health, never very strong, began to fail seriously and he gradually withdrew from his public engagements. His health became still worse in 1691, and his death occurred on December 30 of that year, just a week after that of the sister with whom he had lived for more than twenty years.
