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 Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

Life

Power matriculated as a pensioner of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 250 graduate students. The c ...

, in 1641 and graduated a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

in 1644. He became a regular correspondent of

Sir Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne ( "brown"; 19 October 160519 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 d ...

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

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) 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. Those admitted to the degree have ...

in 1648 and a

Doctor of Medicine A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin language, Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of ph ...

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

New Hall New Hall may refer to: * New Hall, Fazakerley, a historic complex that was originally a model village, in Liverpool, England * New Hall, Woodford, a 17th-century cottage in Woodford, Greater Manchester, England * New Hall moated site, a scheduled ...

, 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 (20 July 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 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 languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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 subjects too small to 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 microscopy: optical mic ...

and corpuscularian theory; the experiments of

Evangelista Torricelli Evangelista Torricelli ( ; ; 15 October 160825 October 1647) was an Italian people, Italian physicist and mathematician, and a student of Benedetto Castelli. He is best known for his invention of the barometer, but is also known for his advances i ...

; and the

vacuum A vacuum (: vacuums or vacua) is space devoid of matter. The word is derived from the Latin adjective (neuter ) meaning "vacant" or "void". An approximation to such vacuum is a region with a gaseous pressure much less than atmospheric pressur ...

, and refutations proposed for the works of the Jesuit Jacobus Grandamicus (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 Towne ...

, 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 empirical gas laws, gas law that describes the relationship between pressure and volume of a confined gas. Boyle's law has been stated as: ...

. 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 Mr. Richard Towneley. Robert 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 Scientific method, researches 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, philosophers engag ...

, 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.

In popular culture

Henry Power and his contributions were documented by Crash Course Chemistry and

Hank Green William Henry Green II (born May 5, 1980) is an American YouTuber, science communicator, novelist, Stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian, and entrepreneur. He produces the YouTube channel Vlogbrothers with his older brother, author John Green, a ...

. The section on Boyle's law contained the sentence "Written By Hank Green, savior of high school children" until July 2017.

Bibliography

Notes

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