Henry Power

Background

Henry Power was born in 1623, in Halifax, Yorkshire, England.

Education

Power took his Bachelor of Arts (1644) and Master of Arts (1648) at Cambridge and, with the encouragement of Sir Thomas Browne (a friend of Power’s father), the Doctor of Medicine degree there in 1655.

Career

Power practiced medicine in Halifax and later in the neighboring community of New Hall. Between 1646 and 1659 he corresponded extensively with Browne, largely on medical and scientific matters.

Aside from the letters to Browne and a mercifully short poem in heroic couplets on the microscope, Power’s only published work is Experimental Philosophy, in Three Books (on the microscope, atmospheric pressure, and magnetism), completed in 1661 and published in 1664. It was the first book in English on microscopy and the first in any language to describe (along with flora and fauna) the nature of various metals as seen through a microscope.

Power’s test of Boyle’s “spring of the air” hypothesis shows that he understood the need for precise instruments and that he could conduct meticulously controlled experiments. Although his work on microscopy was shortly eclipsed by that of Hooke and Swammerdam, Power remains important as one who helped materially to realize the principles and set the standards of inquiry and exposition formulated by the progenitors and charter members of the Royal Society.

Achievements

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  Henry Power's most important research titled, Experimental Philosophy, was the first work published in English on microscopy. Power's work is important for what it reflects about the first vigorous phase of experimentation and observation carried out by the early Royal Society. It contains observations and experiments on air pressure related to those that made Boyle famous. It contains observations on the airs in mines, spontaneous generation and numerous other phenomena which were under discussion at the early Royal Society meetings. The book shows a strong and openly acknowledged debt to the natural philosophy of Descartes.
  
  Another Power's achievement was in the discovery of the relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas that later became known as Boyle's law.

Works

• book

  • Experimental Philosophy 1661

Membership

Power was admitted to the Royal Society in 1661.

• 

  Royal Society of London , United Kingdom

  1661 - 1668

Interests

• Philosophers & Thinkers

  René Descartes

Connections

Acquaintance:

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 deep curiosity towards the natural world, influenced by the scientific revolution of Baconian enquiry. Browne's literary works are permeated by references to Classical and Biblical sources as well as the idiosyncrasies of his own personality. Although often described as suffused with melancholia, his writings are also characterized by wit and subtle humor, while his literary style is varied, according to the genre, resulting in rich, unique prose which ranges from rough notebook observations to polished Baroque eloquence.

Friend:

Richard Towneley

10 October 1629 – 22 January 1707, an English mathematician, natural philosopher and astronomer from Towneley near Burnley, Lancashire. In a series of experiments with his friend, Richard Towneley, Henry Power discovered the relationship between the pressure and volume of a gas that later became known as Boyle's law.

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography
  1975
• The Dictionary Of Seventeenth-Century British Philosophers
  2000