Chemistry

Robert Boyle is considered both the founder of modern chemistry and the greatest

English scientist to live during the first thirty years of the existence of the Royal Society.

He was not only a chemist and a physicist as we know him to be, but also

an avid theologian, a philanthropist, an essayist, and a beginner in medicine. Born in

Lismore, Ireland to Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, and Katherine Fenton, his second

wife, Boyle was the youngest son in a family of fourteen. However he was not

shortchanged of anything. After private tutoring at home for eight years, Robert Boyle

was sent to Eton College where he studied for four years. At the age of twelve, Boyle

traveled to the Continent, as it was referred to at the time. There he found a private tutor

by the name of Marcombes in Geneva. While traveling between Italy, France, and

England, Boyle was being tutored in the polite arts, philosophy, theology, mathematics,

and science.

As the years went by, Boyle became more and more interested in medicine. His

curiosity in this field led him to chemistry. At first Boyle was mainly interested in the facet

of chemistry that dealt with the preparation of drugs, but soon he became genuinely

interested in the subject and started to study it in great detail. His studies led him to

Oxford where he joined such scientists as John Wilkins and John Wallis. Together in

1660, they founded the Royal Society of London for the Ad...