Robert Stawell Ball

Life

He was the son of naturalist Robert Ball{{cite book | author-link = | editor-last = Hockey | editor-first = Thomas | editor2-last = Trimble | editor2-first = Virginia | editor3-last = Williams | editor3-first = Thomas R. | access-date = 18 November 2015 | chapter-url = http://www.springerreference.com/docs/html/chapterdbid/58108.html | title-link = Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers | access-date = 18 November 2015 | archive-date = 19 September 2015 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150919152306/https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf | url-status = dead

Ball worked for Lord Rosse from 1865 to 1867. In 1867, he became Professor of Applied Mathematics at the Royal College of Science in Dublin. There he lectured on mechanics and published an elementary account of the science.

In 1873, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1874, he was appointed Royal Astronomer of Ireland and Andrews Professor of Astronomy in Trinity College Dublin at Dunsink Observatory.

Ball contributed to the science of kinematics by delineating the screw displacement: :When Ball and the screw theorists speak of screws they no longer mean actual cylindrical objects with helical threads cut into them but the possible motion of any body whatsoever, including that of the screw independently of the nut. Ball's treatise The Theory of Screws (1876) is now in the public domain.

His work on screw dynamics earned him in 1879 the Cunningham Medal of the Royal Irish Academy.

In 1882, Popular Science Monthly carried his article "A Glimpse through the Corridors of Time". The following year it carried his two-part article on "The Boundaries of Astronomy". He was knighted in 1886.

Ball expounded the tides in Time and Tide: a Romance of the Moon (1889). He published in 1891 The Cause of an Ice Age and in 1892 An Atlas of Astronomy.

In 1892, he was appointed Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry at Cambridge University at the same time becoming director of the Cambridge Observatory. In 1897, he was elected an International Member of the American Philosophical Society. He was a fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

In 1900, Cambridge University Press published A Treatise on the Theory of Screws. It followed works meant for a more general audience, such as The Story of the Heavens, first published in 1886. Much in the limelight, he stood as President of the Quaternion Association. He was also President of the Mathematical Association in 1900.

In 1908, he published A Treatise on Spherical Astronomy, which is a textbook on astronomy starting from spherical trigonometry and the celestial sphere, considering atmospheric refraction and aberration of light, and introducing basic use of a generalised instrument.

His work, The Story of the Heavens, is mentioned in the "Ithaca" chapter of Ulysses.

His lectures, articles and books (e.g. Starland and The Story of the Heavens) were mostly popular and simple in style.

Death

He died in Cambridge and was buried at the Parish of the Ascension Burial Ground in Cambridge, with his wife, Lady Francis Elizabeth Ball.

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.

Minor planet 4809 Robertball is named in his honor.

He was the 38th President of the Birmingham and Midland Institute, which holds The Sir Robert Ball Library, the library of The Society for the History of Astronomy.

Lectures

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.{{cite journal

In 1881, 1887, 1892, 1898 and 1900 he was invited to deliver the Royal Institution Christmas Lecture, Astronomy; Astronomy and Great Chapters from the Book of Nature. During the Lent term of 1900, he gave a lecture entitled The Eternal Stars to the Junior School section of Monkton Combe School in Combe Down, which was reported in the school magazine, The Magpie, 2 March 1900.

Arms

References

References

1. (1907). "Ball, Sir Robert Stawell". Who's Who.
2. R.S. Ball (1871) [https://archive.org/details/cu31924031364288 Experimental Mechanics: A course of lectures delivered at the Royal College of Science for Ireland]. Accessed 19 December 2022.
3. [http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/life-society/science-technology/irish-scientists/robert-stawell-ball-frs-%28/index.xml Ball profile], Askaboutireland.ie. Accessed 19 December 2022.
4. Müller-Sievers, Helmut. (2012). "The Cylinder: Kinematics of the Nineteenth Century". [[University of California Press]].
5. R.S. Ball (1876) [https://archive.org/details/theoryscrewsast00ballgoog The Theory of Screws: A study in the dynamics of a rigid body] from [[Internet Archive]].
6. "Robert Stawell Ball". University of St Andrews, Scotland.
7. R.S. Ball (1882) [[s:Popular Science Monthly/Volume 20/February 1882/A Glimpse Through the Corridors of Time. A Glimpse through the Corridors of Time]] from [[Wikisource]]
8. R.S. Ball (1883) ''The Boundaries of Astronomy'' [[s:Popular Science Monthly/Volume 23/May 1883/The Boundaries of Astronomy I. Part I]] and [[s:Popular Science Monthly/Volume 23/June 1883/The Boundaries of Astronomy II. Part II]]
9. See Project Gutenberg
10. Ball, Sir Robert Stawell. (1891). "The Cause of an Ice Age".
11. (17 September 1892). "Review of ''The Cause of an Ice Age'' by Sir Robert Ball". The Athenaeum.
12. (1892). "An Atlas of Astronomy: A Series of Seventy-two Plates, with Introduction and Index".
13. (1893). "An Atlas of Astronomy". Nature.
14. "APS Member History".
15. R.S. Ball (1900) [https://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=math;cc=math;view=toc;subview=short;idno=03000001 A Treatise on the Theory of Screws], weblink from [[Cornell University]] Historical Math Monographs
16. ''The Story of the Heavens'' is available from [[Project Gutenberg]] (external link)
17. (29 January 1900). "Court Circular".
18. R. S. Ball (1908) [https://books.google.com/books?id=DuI8AAAAIAAJ A Treatise on Spherical Astronomy] Google preview
19. Joyce, James. (1922). "Ulysses". Shakespeare and Company.
20. {{usurped
21. W. V. Ball (1915) [https://archive.org/details/reminiscenceslet00balluoft Reminiscences and Letters of Sir Robert Ball], [[Cassell (publisher). Cassell & Company]].
22. "(4809) Robertball = 1928 RB = 1969 PS = 1988 CP6". [[Minor Planet Center]].
23. The Magpie Magazine, Vol 1, No 2, March 1900, Monkton Combe Junior School
24. (5 January 1898). "Grants and Confirmations of Arms Volume I". National Library of Ireland.