Robert boyle He was born on January 27, 1627 in County Waterford, in the south-east of Ireland; seventh son of the Earl of Cork. He was educated at Eton and later traveled and studied in Europe. He returned from the continent in 1644 very interested in science and settled in Dorset where he built a laboratory.
In 1655 or 1666, Boyle moved to Oxford. It was there that he hired Robert Hooke as an assistant and together they devised the most famous piece of experimental equipment associated with Boyle, the vacuum chamber or air pump.
At this time, even the idea of an experiment was controversial. The established method to “discover” something, was to argue on the subject in question, using the logical rules established by Aristotle and others had designed more than 2,000 years before. Boyle he was more interested in observing nature and drawing his conclusions from what was actually happening. He was the first prominent scientist to conduct controlled experiments and to publish his work with details regarding procedures, apparatus used, and observations. He began publishing in 1659 and continued to do so for the rest of his life on subjects as diverse as philosophy, medicine, and religion. His most important work, The skeptical chemist, was published in 1661.
Boyle He is famous and recognized by the Law that bears his name. The Boyle’s Law indicates that if the volume of a gas is reduced, the pressure increases proportionally. Realizing that his results could be explained if all gases were made of tiny particles, Boyle attempted to construct one “corpuscular theory“Universal of chemistry. It defined the modern idea of a”element“, and introduced many other standard chemical tests.
In 1660, along with 11 other people, he formed the Royal Society of London, which met to witness experiments and discuss what we would now call scientific topics.
In 1668, Boyle moved permanently to London, to live with his sister. In 1680 he refused to preside over the Royal Society, because the required oath violated his deeply held religious principles. Robert boyle died in London on December 31, 1691.