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In 1661, Robert Boyle published his Essay on Nitre. In this famous essay, the author of The Sceptical Chymist (1661) introduces and promotes his new Corpuscular Philosophy. Central to this paper was the so-called redintegration or reconstitution experiment with saltpeter. However, this article shows that Boyle borrowed this experiment from Johann Rudolph Glauber, who had given it an alchemical interpretation. By contrast, opening the way to modern chemistry, Boyle gave it a new interpretation within the conceptual framework of his own Mechanical Philosophy. The redintegration experiment is not only important for the history of chemistry. It is very likely that the experiment also inspired Newton in his views on the composition of white light.
Filip Buyse (Wed,) studied this question.