#25January1627

[whencyclopedia]

Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle (1627-1691) was an Anglo-Irish chemist, physicist, and experimental philosopher. Boyle was a prolific author, made significant experiments with air pumps, and presented the first litmus test. A founding member of the Royal Society, Boyle bequeathed funding for a long-lasting series of lectures, the Boyle Lectures, which aimed to show that the Christian faith and science were not incompatible.

Early Life

Robert Boyle was born on 25 January 1627 in Ireland. His father was Richard Boyle (1566-1643), the English landowner who later became the Earl of Cork. Robert was privately educated and then attended Eton College, but unusually for a leading figure of the Scientific Revolution, he did not study at a university. Boyle's education was rounded out by conducting a grand tour of Europe between 1639 and 1642, taking private lessons along the way with a tutor in tow. Robert lived in a manor house in Stalbridge, Dorset, in southern England from 1644, which was paid for by his father. In the mid-1650s, he moved to Oxford. In 1668, Boyle moved again, this time to Pall Mall in London, where he shared a home with his beloved sister Katherine.

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