Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle FRS (25 January 1627 – 31 December 1691) was a 17th-century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, inventor and founding member of the Royal Society.

Boyle was born in Ireland to a titled Anglo-Irish family. He was the fourteenth child of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, who had arrived in Ireland in 1588.

Career
Robert Boyle is best known for Boyle's law.Boyle's Law describes the inverse relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas.

When Robert Hooke was young, Boyle employed him as an instrument-maker and assistant. They continued to cooperate when Hooke took charge of experiments at the Royal Society.

Scientific research was the main focus of Boyle's life.  He joined other like-minded men in a group which called itself the "Invisible College".Kassell, Lauren.  "Invisible College (act. 1646-1647)," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography  He was part of the group which founded the Royal Society in 1660."Robert Boyle’s astonishing scientific wishlist," The Royal Society: 350 Years of Science (exhibition). June 2010.

Boyle was an alchemist, but also the first modern chemist. His 1661 book, The Sceptical Chymist, is important in the history of chemistry.

Religious interests
As a director of the East India Company Boyle spent large sums in promoting the spread of Christianity in the East. He contributed liberally to missionary societies and to the expenses of translating the Bible or portions of it into various languages.

Boyle supported the policy that the Bible should be available in the language of the people, in contrast to the Latin-only policy of the Roman Catholic Church at the time.

 References 

Further reading
 Hunter, Michael. (2000). Robert Boyle, 1627-91: scrupulosity and science. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. ;  OCLC 185478148
 __________. 2009. Boyle: between God and science. New Haven: Yale University Press. ;  OCLC 698916661

Category:1627 births
Category:1691 deaths
Category:English chemists
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Irish physicists
Category:English physicists