1-156-126 - Oxford Science Archive/Heritage Images

Robert Boyle, 17th century Irish chemist and physicist, 1739. After attending school at Eton, Boyle (1627-1691), the seventh son of the 1st Earl of Cork, spent six years in Europe. He settled in Oxford in 1654 and carried out experiments on air, respiration, combustion, and the vacuum with Robert Hooke as his assistant. In 1662 he formulated Boyle's Law that pressure and volume of gas are inversely proportional. In 1668 he moved to London and devoted much time to science and the Royal Society. After a portrait by the German painter Johann Kerseboom (fl1680).