Boyle's laboratory. Engraving of the laboratory of Robert Boyle (1627-91), British chemist. The laboratory contains various furnaces and vessels for sublimation and distillation. Boyle established chemistry as an independent science, establishing an experimental philosophy which promoted the use of careful observation. Boyle carried out research into the composition of substances, vacuums, hydrostatics, the chemistry of colours, calcination of metals, properties of acids and alkalis, crystallography and refraction. Image of Boyle's laboratory in Maiden Lane, near Covent Garden, London, in 1668.