What do you think?
Rate this book
Robert Boyle : father of chemistry
Biography of the 17th Century Anglo-Irish scientist, Robert Boyle.
179 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1959
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 26, 2022
Only a single chapter of this book is devoted to Boyle's scientific research. The rest is biography or concerns his theological writings. Boyle was, above all, seeking God in His creation, finding a sermon in every flower. Alchemy was about perfection through purification: to purify base metals into gold, diseased bodies to health, sinful souls to salvation. He was a linguist and Bible scholar, and funded translations of the Bible into Welsh, Turkish and other languages.
If Boyle accepted the authority of the Bible without question, he was much more forthright regarding Aristotle, and one of his greatest contributions to science was to debunk those who taught from ancient texts and never performed a single experiment. Since he never went to university, he had gotten into the habit of trusting his own observations over what he was told.
The success of Boyle's experiments is largely due to his possession of the first really good suction pump. He could therefore investigate pressures, vacuums, the transmission of sound, combustion, and respiration of animals. He came very close indeed to discovering oxygen. He was also one of the first to prepare elemental phosphorus. And he provided money, status and religious respectability to the newly formed Royal Society.
If Boyle accepted the authority of the Bible without question, he was much more forthright regarding Aristotle, and one of his greatest contributions to science was to debunk those who taught from ancient texts and never performed a single experiment. Since he never went to university, he had gotten into the habit of trusting his own observations over what he was told.
The success of Boyle's experiments is largely due to his possession of the first really good suction pump. He could therefore investigate pressures, vacuums, the transmission of sound, combustion, and respiration of animals. He came very close indeed to discovering oxygen. He was also one of the first to prepare elemental phosphorus. And he provided money, status and religious respectability to the newly formed Royal Society.
January 27, 2017
I really enjoyed this book. Boyle is a fascinating character and not so widely known nowadays as he deserves. He was possibly the most famous scientist (or experimental philosopher, as he would have been called at the time) of his day, and was central to the establishment of The Royal Society. He was also well-known for his religious writings. He saw careful empiricism as a means of knowing God better, which is an intriguing view, as it's more usual to see religion and science in opposition.
Pilkington's prose is fluid and very readable. A flaw is that he does fawn over Boyle a bit, and his interpretation of ambiguities tends to be complimentary rather than rigorous. However he states in the introduction that the book is intended to be read for pleasure rather than as a scholarly work. I think the reason it's so engaging is that it's mostly devoted to Boyle's ideas, rather than to dates and occurrences. Many of his ideas are old-fashioned and he was mocked even in his own time for his piety. Still, there's something interesting about them (and I say this as an atheist, not a religious person). Boyle does seem to have been a genuinely decent and nice person. It's refreshing to read about someone like that.
Pilkington's prose is fluid and very readable. A flaw is that he does fawn over Boyle a bit, and his interpretation of ambiguities tends to be complimentary rather than rigorous. However he states in the introduction that the book is intended to be read for pleasure rather than as a scholarly work. I think the reason it's so engaging is that it's mostly devoted to Boyle's ideas, rather than to dates and occurrences. Many of his ideas are old-fashioned and he was mocked even in his own time for his piety. Still, there's something interesting about them (and I say this as an atheist, not a religious person). Boyle does seem to have been a genuinely decent and nice person. It's refreshing to read about someone like that.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews