Professor Sir Robert Stawell Ball | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Royal Astronomer of Ireland | |
| In office 1874–1892 | |
| Preceded by | Franz Brünnow |
| Succeeded by | Arthur Alcock Rambaut |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1840-07-01)1 July 1840 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 25 November 1913(1913-11-25) (aged 73) Cambridge, England |
| Alma mater | Trinity College Dublin |
| Known for | Screw theory |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy Mechanics Mathematics |
| Institutions | Trinity College Dublin Cambridge Observatory andUniversity of Cambridge |
Sir Robert Stawell BallFRS (1 July 1840 – 25 November 1913) was anIrishastronomer[1] who founded thescrew theory. He wasRoyal Astronomer of Ireland atDunsink Observatory.
He was the son of naturalistRobert Ball[2] and Amelia Gresley Hellicar. He was born inDublin.[3] and was educated atTrinity College Dublin where he won a scholarship in 1859 and was a senior moderator in bothmathematics andexperimental and natural science in 1861.
Ball worked forLord Rosse from 1865 to 1867. In 1867, he became Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Royal College of Science in Dublin. There he lectured onmechanics and published an elementary account of the science.[4]
In 1873, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1874, he was appointedRoyal Astronomer of Ireland andAndrews Professor of Astronomy inTrinity College Dublin atDunsink Observatory.[5]
Ball contributed to the science ofkinematics by delineating thescrew displacement:
Ball's treatiseThe Theory of Screws (1876) is now in the public domain.[7]
His work on screw dynamics earned him in 1879 theCunningham Medal of theRoyal Irish Academy.[8]
In 1882,Popular Science Monthly carried his article "A Glimpse through the Corridors of Time".[9] The following year it carried his two-part article on "The Boundaries of Astronomy".[10] He was knighted in 1886.[citation needed]
Ball expounded thetides inTime and Tide: a Romance of the Moon (1889).[11] He published in 1891The Cause of an Ice Age[12][13] and in 1892An Atlas of Astronomy.[14][15]
In 1892, he was appointedLowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry atCambridge University at the same time becoming director of theCambridge Observatory. In 1897, he was elected an International Member of theAmerican Philosophical Society.[16] He was a fellow ofKing's College, Cambridge.
In 1900,Cambridge University Press publishedA Treatise on the Theory of Screws.[17] It followed works meant for a more general audience, such asThe Story of the Heavens,[18] first published in 1886. Much in the limelight, he stood as President of theQuaternion Association. He was also President of theMathematical Association in 1900.[19]
In 1908, he publishedA Treatise on Spherical Astronomy,[20] which is a textbook onastronomy starting fromspherical trigonometry and thecelestial sphere, consideringatmospheric refraction andaberration of light, and introducing basic use of ageneralised instrument.[citation needed]
His work,The Story of the Heavens, is mentioned in the "Ithaca" chapter ofUlysses.[21]
His lectures, articles and books (e.g.Starland andThe Story of the Heavens) were mostly popular and simple in style.[citation needed]
He died in Cambridge and was buried at theParish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with his wife, Lady Francis Elizabeth Ball.[22]
Their children were: Frances Amelia, Robert Steele, William Valentine (later Sir), Mary Agnetta, Charles Rowan Hamilton, and Randall Gresley (later Colonel).Reminiscences and Letters of Sir Robert Ball by his son W.V. Ball was published in 1915 by Cassell & Company.[23]
Minor planet4809 Robertball is named in his honor.[24]
He was the 38th President of theBirmingham and Midland Institute, which holds The Sir Robert Ball Library, the library ofThe Society for the History of Astronomy.[citation needed]
Ball became celebrated for his popular lectures on science. He gave an estimated 2500 lectures between 1875 and 1910 in towns and cities across Britain and Ireland.[25][26]
In 1881, 1887, 1892, 1898 and 1900 he was invited to deliver theRoyal Institution Christmas Lecture,Astronomy;Astronomy andGreat Chapters from the Book of Nature. During the Lent term of 1900, he gave a lecture entitledThe Eternal Stars to the Junior School section ofMonkton Combe School in Combe Down, which was reported in the school magazine, The Magpie, 2 March 1900.[27]
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