An Irish scientist noted for his experimental work on the pressure of gases. The fourteenth child and seventh son of the Earl of Cork, he was sent to Eton at the age of eight and overseas at eleven with a tutor. He settled in England and devoted his life to experimental science. He became an active member of the Invisible Society, which developed into the Royal Society.

Boyle’s best-known works include the Spring of the Air (1660); he discovered that sound does not pass through a vacuum and established that air has weight. He observed the effect of altitude on pressure and the effect of pressure on the boiling point of liquids. He invented a type of thermometer and carried out many experiments on refraction, colour, electricity, relative densities, and the expansion of water when it freezes. He also defined the term ‘element’, distinguished between mixtures and compounds, and showed that a compound could have different properties from those of its constituents. He was the first to prepare, collect, and burn hydrogen and one of the first to isolate phosphorus in 1680.