Reading Guide
for Robert Boyle, "New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of Air"

Original text too bothersome? Download 1.2MB-file of reformatted text (courtesy of U.Minn. subscription to EEBO). [This later edition includes 2 responses to critics -- with successive pagination sequences.*]

Expected reading time [as always]: ~2.5-3 hours, including writing notes & summary.

Option 1: Foucs on Boyle's (1) ideas and/or (2) methods (from table of contents!!, Expts. I, XVII). Pose a question for discussion, with relevant text references.

Option 2 [using electronic text]: First, read Table of Contents for overview. Then browse items of interest. In particular, use web-browser's "Search" function to find references to particular concepts or relevant terms, such as vacuum, Torricelli, spring, experiment, hypothesis, magnet, Harvey, blood, funiculus(!?). Read relevant sections (using Table of Contents) and summarize Boyle's views.

Possible topics: scope of experiments; concept of matter; nature of "spring" of air; possibility and meaning of a vacuum; style of reporting on apparatus and/or experimental methods; response to critics; analogies and use of language.

* Summary of Reponse to Linus begins on [2nd section] p. 113. Summary of Response to Hobbes begins on [3rd section] p. 100.