Robert Stawell Ball

Template:Short description Template:Other people Template:Use Hiberno-English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox officeholder Sir Robert Stawell Ball Template:Postnominals (1 July 1840 – 25 November 1913) was an Irish astronomer<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> who founded the screw theory. He was Royal Astronomer of Ireland at Dunsink Observatory.

Life

He was the son of naturalist Robert Ball<ref name="biogencastron">Template:Cite book</ref> and Amelia Gresley Hellicar. He was born in Dublin.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and was educated at Trinity College Dublin where he won a scholarship in 1859 and was a senior moderator in both mathematics and experimental and natural science in 1861.

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.<ref>R.S. Ball (1871) Experimental Mechanics: A course of lectures delivered at the Royal College of Science for Ireland. Accessed 19 December 2022.</ref>

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.<ref>Ball profile, Askaboutireland.ie. Accessed 19 December 2022.</ref>

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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Ball's treatise The Theory of Screws (1876) is now in the public domain.<ref>R.S. Ball (1876) The Theory of Screws: A study in the dynamics of a rigid body from Internet Archive.</ref>

His work on screw dynamics earned him in 1879 the Cunningham Medal of the Royal Irish Academy.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1882, Popular Science Monthly carried his article "A Glimpse through the Corridors of Time".<ref>R.S. Ball (1882) A Glimpse through the Corridors of Time from Wikisource</ref> The following year it carried his two-part article on "The Boundaries of Astronomy".<ref>R.S. Ball (1883) The Boundaries of Astronomy Part I and Part II</ref> He was knighted in 1886.Template:Citation needed

Ball expounded the tides in Time and Tide: a Romance of the Moon (1889).<ref>See Project Gutenberg</ref> He published in 1891 The Cause of an Ice Age<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and in 1892 An Atlas of Astronomy.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was a fellow of King's College, Cambridge.

In 1900, Cambridge University Press published A Treatise on the Theory of Screws.<ref>R.S. Ball (1900) A Treatise on the Theory of Screws, weblink from Cornell University Historical Math Monographs</ref> It followed works meant for a more general audience, such as The Story of the Heavens,<ref>The Story of the Heavens is available from Project Gutenberg (external link)</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite newspaper The Times</ref>

In 1908, he published A Treatise on Spherical Astronomy,<ref>R. S. Ball (1908) A Treatise on Spherical Astronomy Google preview</ref> 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.Template:Citation needed

His work, The Story of the Heavens, is mentioned in the "Ithaca" chapter of Ulysses.<ref>The title The Story of the Heavens appears in a list of 22 books found on pages 660 to 662 of the 1st edition of Ulysses.Template:Cite book</ref>

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

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.<ref>Template:Usurped. Papworthastronomy.org. Retrieved 7 June 2014.</ref>

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.<ref>W. V. Ball (1915) Reminiscences and Letters of Sir Robert Ball, Cassell & Company.</ref>

Minor planet 4809 Robertball is named in his honor.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.Template:Citation needed

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.<ref name="ruizcastell2004">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name="jones2005">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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.<ref>The Magpie Magazine, Vol 1, No 2, March 1900, Monkton Combe Junior School</ref>

External links

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• Template:Gutenberg author
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• G.L. Herries-Davies Sir R.S. Ball from Trinity College Dublin
• Discoveries, klima-luft.de. Accessed 19 December 2022.
• Sir Robert Ball Library, societyforthehistoryofastronomy.com. Accessed 19 December 2022.