It has been said that Robert Boyle, the ‘Father of Modern Chemistry’, was the most important scientist ever born in Ireland. In fact it has been argued that of all historical figures born in Ireland he had the greatest impact on the course of human history. (See Article by David McWilliams here)
Robert Boyle was born in Lismore Castle on 25th January 1627. He was the youngest- and favourite- son of the “Great Earl of Corke”, Richard Boyle and his second wife Catherine Fenton. Robert spent his early childhood at Lismore before being sent to Eton at the age of 8. At 11 he was taken out of school and tutored at the great earl’s new English base, Stalbridge House and shortly after dispatched on a Grand Tour of Europe with his older brother (Francis, aged 15) and his tutor before returning to England and devoting his life to writing and scientific research.
In 1655 Boyle moved to Oxford where he joined the Invisible College – a group of natural philosophers that foreshadowed the Royal Society that was founded in 1660. About this time Boyle employed Robert Hooke to help him with his experiments. Together they built the air-pump used in many of Boyle’s most important experiments including the establishing the necessity of air for combustion, for animal breathing, and for the transmission of sound. Boyle also proved the inverse relationship between the volume of a gas and its pressure enshrined in science textbooks across the world as Boyle’s Law.
Robert Boyle was a prolific writer on theology, philosophy as well as the new science. His publications included New Experiments Physio-Mechanical, Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects (1660) and his most famous- The Sceptical Chymist (1661). Boyle’s Law first appears in the 2nd edition of New Experiments Physio-Mechanical, Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects in 1662, Boyle argued that science could and should bring material benefits to mankind and expounded this in his 1663 book “Some Considerations Touching the Usefulness of Experimental Natural Philosophy”.