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BIOGRAPHIES OF GREAT SCIENTISTS
Boyle Robert. Biography of a scientist
Directory / Biographies of great scientists
Boyle entered the history of science not only as the author of fundamental discoveries, but also as the world's first organizer of science. His theory of the corpuscular structure of substances was a step forward in the development of the atomic-molecular theory. The great scientist's research laid the foundation for the birth of a new chemical science. He singled out chemistry as an independent science and showed that it has its own problems, its own tasks, which must be solved by its own methods, different from medicine. By systematizing numerous color reactions and precipitation reactions, Boyle laid the foundation for analytical chemistry. Robert Boyle was born on January 25, 1627. He was the thirteenth child of the fourteen children of Richard Boyle, the first Duke of Cork, a ferocious and successful money-grubber who lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth and multiplied his lands by seizing foreign lands. He was born at Lismore Castle, one of his father's Irish estates. There Robert spent his childhood. He received an excellent home education and at the age of eight became a student at Eton University. There he studied for four years, after which he left for his father's new estate, Stolbridge. As was customary at the time, at the age of twelve, Robert and his brother went on a trip to Europe. He decided to continue his education in Switzerland and Italy and stayed there for six long years. Boyle returned to England only in 1644, after the death of his father, who left him a considerable fortune. Receptions were often held in Stallbridge, attended by scientists, writers and politicians well-known at that time. Heated discussions took place here more than once, and Robert, on his return to London, became one of the regulars at such meetings. However, the future scientist dreamed of moving from abstract disputes to the real thing. Boyle dreamed of his own laboratory, but he did not dare to ask his sister for financial support. It occurred to him that the numerous buildings on the estate could be converted into laboratories; besides, Oxford is within easy reach from there, and London is not far away: you can still meet friends ... The upper floor of the castle in Stallbridge housed a bedroom, an office, a spacious hall and a rich library. Every week a cab driver brought boxes of new books from London. Boyle read with incredible speed. Sometimes he sat behind a book from morning until late at night. In the meantime, work on the equipment of the laboratory was nearing completion. By the end of 1645, research in physics, chemistry and agricultural chemistry began in the laboratory. Boyle liked to work on several issues simultaneously. He usually explained in detail to the assistants what they had to do for the day, and then retired to the office, where the secretary was waiting for him. There he dictated his philosophical treatises. An encyclopedic scientist, Boyle, dealing with the problems of biology, medicine, physics and chemistry, showed no less interest in philosophy, theology and linguistics. Boyle attached paramount importance to laboratory research. The most interesting and varied are his experiments in chemistry. Boyle believed that chemistry, having spun off from alchemy and medicine, could well become an independent science. At first, Boyle was engaged in obtaining infusions from flowers, medicinal herbs, lichens, tree bark and plant roots ... The scientist and his assistants prepared many infusions of different colors. Some changed their color only under the action of acids, others - under the action of alkalis. However, the most interesting was the purple infusion obtained from litmus lichen. Acids changed its color to red, and alkalis to blue. Boyle ordered paper to be soaked with this infusion and then dried. A piece of such paper, immersed in the test solution, changed its color and showed whether the solution was acidic or alkaline. It was one of the first substances that Boyle even then called indicators. And as often happens in science, one discovery led to another. When studying the infusion of ink nut in water, Boyle found that with iron salts it forms a black-colored solution. This black solution could be used as ink. Boyle studied in detail the conditions for obtaining ink and compiled the necessary recipes, which were used for almost a century to produce high-quality black ink. An observant scientist could not pass by another property of solutions: when a little hydrochloric acid was added to a solution of silver in nitric acid, a white precipitate formed, which Boyle called "cornea moon" (silver chloride). If this precipitate was left in an open vessel, it turned black. An analytical reaction was carried out, reliably showing that the substance under study contains the "moon" (silver). The young scientist continued to doubt the universal analytical ability of fire and looked for other means of analysis. His many years of research showed that when substances are affected by certain reagents, they can decompose into simpler compounds. Using specific reactions, it was possible to determine these compounds. Some substances formed colored precipitates, others emitted a gas with a characteristic odor, others gave colored solutions, etc. Boyle called the processes of decomposition of substances and the identification of the resulting products using characteristic reactions analysis. It was a new way of working that gave impetus to the development of analytical chemistry. However, scientific work in Stallbridge had to be suspended. Bad news came from Ireland: the rebellious peasants ruined the castle in Cork, the income of the estate was sharply reduced. At the beginning of 1652, Boyle was forced to leave for the family estate. A lot of time was spent on settling financial problems, a more experienced manager was appointed, sometimes Boyle himself controlled his work. In 1654, the scientist moved to Oxford, where he continued his experiments with an assistant, Wilhelm Gomberg. Research was reduced to one goal: to systematize substances and divide them into groups according to their properties. Boyle and Gomberg received and investigated many salts. Their classification with each experiment became more extensive and complete. Not everything in the interpretation of scientists was reliable, not everything corresponded to the ideas that existed at that time, and, however, it was a bold step towards a consistent theory, a step that turned chemistry from a craft into a science. It was an attempt to introduce theoretical foundations into chemistry, without which science is unthinkable, without which it cannot move forward. After Gomberg, the young physicist Robert Hooke became his assistant. They mainly devoted their research to gases and the development of corpuscular theory. Having learned from scientific publications about the work of the German physicist Otto Guericke, Boyle decided to repeat his experiments and for this purpose invented the original design of an air pump. The first example of this machine was built with the help of Hooke. With a pump, the researchers managed to almost completely remove the air. However, all attempts to prove the presence of ether in an empty vessel remained futile. “There is no ether,” Boyle concluded. He decided to call empty space vacuum, which means "empty" in Latin. The crisis that engulfed all of England at the end of the fifties interrupted his scientific work. Outraged by the cruel dictatorship of Cromwell, the supporters of the monarchy again rose to the fight. Arrests and murders, bloody civil strife have become commonplace in the country. Boyle retired to the estate: there he could work in peace. He decided to present the results of his research over the past ten years. Two secretaries worked in Boyle's office almost around the clock. One, under his dictation, wrote down the thoughts of the scientist, the other completely rewrote the already existing sketches. In a few months they completed Boyle's first major scientific work, New Physico-Mechanical Experiments Concerning the Weight of Air and Its Manifestations. The book was published in 1660. Without wasting a day, Boyle gets down to work on his next work: The Skeptic Chemist. In these books, Boyle left no stone unturned from Aristotle's doctrine of the four elements, which existed for almost two thousand years, Cartesian "ether" and the three alchemical principles. Naturally, this work provoked sharp attacks from the followers of Aristotle and the Carthusians. However, Boyle relied on experience in it, and therefore his evidence was undeniable. Most of the scientists - followers of the corpuscular theory - enthusiastically accepted Boyle's ideas. Many of his ideological opponents were also forced to recognize the discoveries of the scientist, including the physicist Christian Huygens, a supporter of the idea of the existence of the ether. After the accession to the throne of Charles II, the political life of the country somewhat normalized, and the scientist could already conduct research at Oxford. Sometimes he went to London to see his sister Katharina. His assistant in the Oxford laboratory was now the young physicist Richard Townley. Together with him, Boyle discovered one of the fundamental laws of physics, establishing that the change in the volume of a gas is inversely proportional to the change in pressure. This meant that, knowing the change in the volume of the vessel, it was possible to accurately calculate the change in gas pressure. The greatest discovery of the 1662th century. Boyle first described it in XNUMX ("In Defense of the Doctrine of the Elasticity and Weight of Air") and modestly called it a hypothesis. Fifteen years later, in France, Mariotte confirmed Boyle's discovery by establishing the same pattern. In fact, this was the first law of the emerging physical and chemical science. In addition, Boyle proved that when pressure changes, even those substances with which this does not occur under normal conditions, such as ice, can evaporate. Boyle was the first to describe the expansion of bodies when heated and cooled. Having cooled an iron pipe filled with water, Boyle watched as it burst under the influence of ice. For the first time in the history of science, he showed that when pressure drops, water can boil while remaining slightly warm. However, discovering new phenomena, Boyle could not always explain their true cause. So, observing the rise of a liquid in thin tubes, he did not realize that he had discovered the phenomenon of surface tension. This will be done much later by the English physicist D. Stokes. Boyle also discovered that air is changed by burning bodies in it, that some metals increase in weight when heated. But he failed to draw any theoretical conclusions from these works. Note that this is not Boyle's fault, since he was at the very beginning of experimental physics. Becoming a leading English physicist and chemist, Boyle took the initiative to organize the Society of Sciences, which soon became known as the Royal Society of London. Boyle served as president of this scientific organization from 1680 until his death. During his lifetime, the Royal Society was a recognized scientific center, around which the largest scientists of that time united: J. Locke, I. Newton, D. Wallace. Boyle was in the prime of his creative powers: scientific works on philosophy, physics, and chemistry appeared from his pen one after another. In 1664 he published "Experiments and Reflections on Flowers". Boyle by that time was at the zenith of his fame. Often he is now invited to the palace, because even the powerful of this world considered it an honor for themselves to talk for at least a few minutes with the "luminary of English science." He was widely honored and even invited to become a member of the Royal Mines. The following year he was appointed director of the East India Company. However, all this could not distract the scientist from the main work. Boyle used all the income received from this position for the development of science. It was in Oxford that Boyle created one of the first scientific laboratories in Europe, in which many famous scientists worked with him. His new books are published: "Hydrostatic paradoxes", "The emergence of forms and qualities according to the corpuscular theory", "On mineral waters". In the latter, he gave an excellent description of the methods of analysis of mineral waters. For several years, Boyle studied a substance called luminous stone, or phosphorus. In 1680, he received white phosphorus, which was later called Boyle's phosphorus for a long time to come. Time passed. Boyle's health deteriorated greatly. He could no longer follow the work in the laboratories, could not take an active part in research. However, he needed to present the knowledge that he had acquired in the course of his research for almost thirty-five years. To this end, Boyle goes to the family estate. Sometimes he came to Cambridge to talk with Newton, to Oxford to see old friends, or to London to meet the sophists. But best of all he felt at home, in his office among the books. Now he was occupied mainly with philosophical problems. Boyle was also known as the greatest theologian of his time. It seemed that these were incompatible disciplines, but the scientist himself wrote about it this way: "The demon filled my soul with horror and inspired me to doubt the basic truths of religion." In order to read biblical texts in the original, Boyle even studied Greek and Hebrew. During his lifetime, he established annual scientific readings on theology and the history of religion. The third side of Boyle's activity was associated with literature. He had a good style and wrote several poems and a treatise on moral topics. Robert Boyle died on December 30, 1691 and was buried in Westminster Abbey - the burial place of prominent people of England. Dying, Boyle bequeathed that all his capital be used for the development of science in England and for the continuation of the activities of the Royal Society. In addition, he provided special facilities for holding annual scientific readings in physics and theology. Author: Samin D.K.
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