Hennig Brandt was an alchemist who, in his search to find the “philosopher’s stone”, accidentally discovered phosphorus after boiling a large volume of urine and heating the remaining residue. He tried to keep his discovery a secret, but Robert Boyle – known as the Father or Modern Chemistry - learnt how to produce it himself after the secret was leaked. However, he improved on Brandt’s method so produced the element in higher yields. He named it “icy noctiluca” and sold it in batches for a high price. Boyle spent a long time trying to overthrow the doctrines of the alchemists, such as Brandt, who believed metals could be turned into gold. Until Boyle’s era it was believed that all matter was made up of the elements fire, water, earth and air. Boyle was the first person to put forward the idea of the element in its modern day meaning – a substance in its simplest form. He published this theory in 1661 in what is arguably his most important contribution to chemistry, The Sceptical Chymist. Prior to Boyle’s experimenting methods, science was mainly based on beliefs rather than evidence, but due to his renown, others began following his methods of experimentation, giving birth to the foundations of modern day chemistry.
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| Figure 1: Noctiluca |
He believed in the philosophical rules set by Sir Francis Bacon in Novum Organum, though he did not publically adhere to them as he followed a belief in experiment and evidence.
He also had interests in other fields, physics being one of his key areas. With his brilliant assistant, Robert Hooke, who first identified “cells” under the microscope, he built an air pump and proved Galileo’s theory of falling bodies in a vacuum. This same air pump is how he formed his well known ideal gas law, relating pressure to volume. Boyle also proved that air is essential for sound transmission, for a candle flame, and for life.
Something else he is less famous for is discovering acid alkali indicators. Taking a vegetable indicator, he found that all acids turned the indicator from blue to red, while all alkalis turned the indicator from blue to green. The substances that did not change the colour of the indicator he classified as neutral.
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| Figure 2: Robert Boyle |
He published this theory in 1661 in what is arguably his most important contribution to chemistry, The Sceptical Chymist. Prior to Boyle’s experimenting methods, germany jewerly , usa jewerly , science was mainly based on beliefs rather than evidence, but due to his renown, others began following his methods of experimentation, giving birth to the foundations of modern day chemistry.
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