Robert Boyle (1627-1691) :: Biography Biographies Essays

  Ã‚  Ã‚   Robert Boyle is the most influential Anglo-Irish scientist in history.   He played a key role in the history of science by establishing the experimental method, on which all modern science is based (Mollan).   Also, with his assistant Robert Hooke, he began pioneering experiments on the properties of gases, including those expressed in Boyle's law.   He demonstrated the physical characteristics of air, showing that is is necessary in combustion, respiration, and sound transmission.   He also wrote The Sceptical Chymist in 1661, in which he attacked Aristotle's theory of four elements.   This was an essential part of the modern theory of chemical elements. Childhood   Ã‚  Ã‚   Robert was born on January 25, 1627 to a Protestant family in Lismore, Ireland.   He was the youngest of fourteen children.   His father was Richard Boyle, First Earl of Cork.   Richard came to Ireland from England in 1588 at the age of 22.   He was appointed clerk of the council of Munster by Elizabeth I in 1600 (Robert).   At one point he was imprisoned for embezzlement and theft, but he managed to receive a royal pardon, and went on to accumulate a huge fortune and advance his social standing and political influence (Mollan).   He was a very successful man and Robert grew up in a very noble and high-class life.  Ã‚   Robert’s mother, Catherine Fenton, was Richard’s second wife, his first having died within a year of the birth of their first child.   When Richard married the well connected Fenton she was 15 and he was 37.   Richard was in his 60’s and Catherine in her 40’s when Robert was born (Robert).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Robert was born into an affluent English aristocratic family and received a conventional gentleman's education (Clulee).   In a brief autobiography of his early life, Robert paints himself as being different from the other children in his family.   He says he was rather self-righteous, preferring to study rather than play or do other normal boyish activities.   Robert wrote that he was very much his father’s favorite (Mollan).   Robert’s parents believed that the best upbringing for young children, up to the time they began their education, could be provided away from their parents.   Robert was sent away to be brought up in the country while his father continued to aim for higher political successes (Robert).   After his mother died Robert returned from his stay with his country nurse and rejoined his family.   He went to school, along with one of his older brothers, at Eton College in England in 1635 when he was 8 years old (Sargent, 23) .