Henry Power (1623–1668) was an English physician and experimenter, one of the first elected

fellows of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemati ...

Life

Power matriculated as a pensioner of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, in 1641 and graduated a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in 1644. He became a regular correspondent of

Sir Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne (; 19 October 1605 – 19 October 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a ...

, who had lived in Halifax from 1633 to 1635 on scientific subjects. He graduated a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1648 and a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

in . It appears that he practised his profession at Halifax for some time, but he eventually moved to New Hall, near

Elland Elland is a market town in Calderdale, in the county of West Yorkshire, England. It is situated south of Halifax, by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Elland was recorded as ''Elant'' in the Domesday Book of 1086. It ha ...

. Power was elected and admitted a fellow of the Royal Society 1 July 1663, he and

Sir Justinian Isham, 2nd Baronet Sir Justinian Isham, 2nd Baronet (1610 – 2 March 1675) was an English scholar and royalist politician. He was also a Member of Parliament and an early member of the Royal Society. Life He was admitted a fellow-commoner at Christ's College, C ...

, being the first elected members. He died at New Hall on 23 December 1668 and was buried in the All Saints' Church, Wakefield, with a brass plate to his memory, with a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

inscription, on the floor in the middle chancel.

Works

His only published work is 'Experimental Philosophy'. Its three books deal respectively with

microscopy Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view objects and areas of objects that cannot be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of micr ...

and corpuscularian theory; the experiments of

Evangelista Torricelli Evangelista Torricelli ( , also , ; 15 October 160825 October 1647) was an Italian physicist and mathematician, and a student of Galileo. He is best known for his invention of the barometer, but is also known for his advances in optics and work o ...

; and the

vacuum A vacuum is a space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective ''vacuus'' for "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressure. Physicists often dis ...

, and refutations proposed for the works of the Jesuit

Jacobus Grandamicus A Jacobus is an English gold coin of the reign of James I, worth 25 shillings. The name of the coin comes from the Latin inscription surrounding the King's head on the obverse of the coin, IACOBUS D G MAG BRIT FRA ET HI REX ("James, by the grace o ...

(Jacques Grandami, 1588–1672).

Boyle's law

In a series of experiments with his family friend,

Richard Towneley Richard Towneley (10 October 1629 – 22 January 1707) was an English mathematician, natural philosopher and astronomer, resident at Towneley Hall, near Burnley in Lancashire. His uncle was the antiquarian and mathematician Christopher Townele ...

, Henry Power discovered the relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas that later became known as

Boyle's law Boyle's law, also referred to as the Boyle–Mariotte law, or Mariotte's law (especially in France), is an experimental gas law that describes the relationship between pressure and volume of a confined gas. Boyle's law has been stated as: The ...

. This relationship was outlined in "Experimental Philosophy". However, many may argue nevertheless that a prepublication manuscript of "Experimental Philosophy" cited the hypothesis as the sole work of Richard Towneley. Boyle's mention of the theory preceded the publication of "Experimental Philosophy" by one year, which, combined with Boyle's promotion of the idea and his significant status as an aristocratic

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts Scientific method, scientific research to advance knowledge in an Branches of science, area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, ...

, ensured the theory would be known as "Boyle's Law". Boyle attributed Towneley as the sole researcher, ensuring that Power's contributions were all but lost to history.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Power, Henry 1623 births 1668 deaths 17th-century English medical doctors Fellows of the Royal Society