Boyle's Law

Boyle's Air Pump

Basing his pump on that of German scientist Otto von Guericke, Boyle completed his improved 'machina Boyleana' in 1659. His subsequent experiments on the properties of air led to the coining of 'Boyle's Law', describing the relationship between the volume and pressure of a gas. While the name stuck, this discovery was later attributed to another.

Image: Out of Copyright (first published 1660)

Boyle's Air Pump
Image: Out of Copyright (first published 1660)

Boyle's Air Pump

Basing his pump on that of German scientist Otto von Guericke, Boyle completed his improved 'machina Boyleana' in 1659. His subsequent experiments on the properties of air led to the coining of 'Boyle's Law', describing the relationship between the volume and pressure of a gas. While the name stuck, this discovery was later attributed to another.

Image: Out of Copyright (first published 1660)

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Thomas Andrews (1813-1885)

Born in Belfast, Andrews was best known for his work with the liquefaction of gases.

Thomas Andrews (1813-1885)

Thomas Andrews (1813-1885)

Born in Belfast, Andrews was best known for his work with the liquefaction of gases.

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The most important chemist to come out of Ireland was also the first. Robert Boyle, born in 1627, laid the foundations for modern chemistry.

He conducted ground-breaking experiments with an air pump, showing for example that sound cannot travel in a vacuum. His fundamental law linked the pressure and volume of a gas. He also developed analytical tests to identify substances, and some (e.g. flame tests) are still used.

Boyle spent his working life at Oxford (Ireland then was unsettled and, he said, not conducive to research), and he helped to found the Royal Society.

A century later, Joseph Black discovered carbon dioxide and paved the way for the discovery of other gases such as nitrogen and especially oxygen. Black showed that carbon dioxide was a gas, yet it could take part in chemical reactions, just like solids and liquids. He also introduced the important scientific concepts of latent heat and specific heat.

Black, originally from Belfast, worked at the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh and was part of the Scottish Enlightenment.

A century later again, another Belfast scientist discovered how to convert a gas into a liquid. By manipulating temperatures and pressures, Thomas Andrews changed carbon dioxide gas into a liquid, and proved that a gas was only a state of matter. His discovery paved the way for liquefying gases and lead to a whole new industry.

Other Irish chemists interested in gases included Richard Kirwan from Galway and William Higgins from Co Sligo. In the 1780s they were involved in a major international controversy about the nature of combustion and a hypothetical substance called phlogiston. Between them they were instrumental in prompting French scientist Antoine Lavoisier to publish his competing ideas about oxygen, a milestone in the development of modern chemistry.