Robert Boyle

25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691

Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was an Anglo-Irish natural philosopher and chemist, often regarded as the first modern chemist and a founder of modern experimental science. He formulated Boyle's law describing the inverse relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas, and his book The Sceptical Chymist helped separate chemistry from alchemy. He was a founding fellow of the Royal Society.

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Life events

Born at Lismore Castle, Ireland
25 January 1627

Robert Boyle was born at Lismore Castle in County Waterford, the fourteenth child of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Educated at Eton College
1635 – 1638

Boyle was sent to Eton College in England, where his father's friend Sir Henry Wotton was provost.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Undertook a grand tour of continental Europe
1639 – 1644

Boyle travelled through France, Italy, and Switzerland with a tutor, studying in Geneva and visiting Florence, where he read the work of Galileo.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Moved to Oxford to pursue experimental science
1654

Boyle settled in Oxford, where he joined the circle of experimental philosophers and hired Robert Hooke as his assistant.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air
1660

Using an air pump built with Robert Hooke, Boyle published pioneering experiments on the physical properties of air and the vacuum.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Became a founding fellow of the Royal Society
1660

Boyle was among the founding members of the Royal Society of London, chartered in the early 1660s.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published The Sceptical Chymist
1661

Boyle's most famous book attacked Aristotelian and alchemical theories of the elements and helped establish chemistry as a distinct science.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Published the gas law now known as Boyle's law
1662

In the second edition of his work on the spring of the air, Boyle stated that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely proportional at constant temperature.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Moved to London to live with his sister Katherine
1668

Boyle left Oxford and settled in the Pall Mall home of his sister Katherine Jones, Lady Ranelagh, where he maintained a laboratory.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Died in London
31 December 1691

Boyle died in London a week after the death of his sister Katherine, and was buried at St Martin-in-the-Fields.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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