 There are two important implications for Boyle’s philosophy of experiment that derive from the natural historical context in which it was set. First, it accounts for the fact that many of Boyle’s experiments were almost completely divorced from theory – they were experiments that “had a life of their own,” – to use Ian Hacking’s felicitous phrase (Hacking 1983, chapter 9). Secondly, the natural historical context helps to explain the very rich typology of experiments that Boyle used. Boyle followed Bacon in distinguishing between luciferous (light-bearing) experiments that revealed underlying causes and fructiferous (fruit-bearing) experiments, that produced useful knowledge and technologies. This distinction was widely used in the seventeenth century. Another type of experiment that derives from Bacon, was named by Boyle and was made famous by Newton. This was the crucial experiment (experimentum crucis) (BW, 3:50–1).