American writer whose works examine the relationships between Europeans and Americans. Irish-born British physicist and chemist whose precise definitions of chemical elements and reactions began the separation of chemistry from alchemy. In 1662 he formulated Boyle's law
Irish chemist who established that air has weight and whose definitions of chemical elements and chemical reactions helped to dissociate chemistry from alchemy (1627-1691) United States writer (1902-1992)
born Feb. 19, 1902, St. Paul, Minn., U.S. died Dec. 27, 1992, Mill Valley, Calif. U.S. writer. Boyle lived in Europe during the 1920s and '30s. Later she served as a European correspondent for The New Yorker (1946-53). Her writing is noted for its elegant style and consistently leftist stance. Her novels, which include Plagued by the Nightingale (1931) and Generation Without Farewell (1960), are less highly regarded than her short stories, which include "The White Horses of Vienna," "Keep Your Pity," and "Defeat
born Jan. 25, 1627, Lismore Castle, County Waterford, Ire. died Dec. 31, 1691, London, Eng. Irish-born English chemist and natural philosopher. The son of Richard Boyle, the "Great Earl of Cork" (1566-1643), he settled at Oxford in 1654 and, with his assistant Robert Hooke, began his pioneering experiments on the properties of gases, including those expressed in Boyle's law (see gas laws). He demonstrated the physical characteristics of air, showing that it is necessary in combustion, respiration, and sound transmission. In The Sceptical Chymist (1661) he attacked Aristotle's theory of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), espousing a corpuscular view of matter that presaged the modern theory of chemical elements. A founding member of the Royal Society of London, he achieved great renown in his lifetime. His brother Roger Boyle, earl of Orrery (1621-79), was a general under Oliver Cromwell but eventually helped secure Ireland for Charles II