Robert Stawell Ball

Robert Stawell Ball studied at Trinity College, Dublin. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is astronomy. Places of work recorded in the authority are Dublin and Cambridge. Employment is recorded with Royal College of Science for Ireland, William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse and Trinity College, Dublin. Positions recorded include Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry and Royal Astronomer of Ireland. Works named in the authority record are Experimental Mechanics, A treatise on the theory of screws, screw theory, In starry realms and The Story of Heavens. Distinctions recorded are Fellow of the Royal Society and Cunningham Medal.

• Honorific Prefix — Sir • Name — Robert Stawell Ball • Honorific Suffix — FRS • Office — Royal Astronomer of Ireland • Term Start — 1874 • Term End — 1892 • Predecessor — Franz Brünnow • Successor — Arthur Alcock Rambaut • Born — 1 July 1840 • Birthplace — Dublin, Ireland • Died — 25 November 1913 • Place of death — Cambridge, England • Father — Robert Ball • Education — Trinity College Dublin • Known for — Screw theory Sir Robert Stawell Ball (1 July 1840 – 25 November 1913) was an Irish astronomer who founded the screw theory. He was Royal Astronomer of Ireland at Dunsink Observatory.

He was the son of naturalist Robert Ball and Amelia Gresley Hellicar. He was born in Dublin. 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. 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.

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.

• Escutcheon — Argent on a chevron Gules between three fire balls Proper a galley with one mast sail furled a pennon floutaut in stow of the first. • Crest — An arm vambraced embowed Argent charged with two pellets the hand Proper grasping a fireball as in the arms. • Motto — On • Notes — Confirmed by Sir Arthur Edward Vicars, Ulster King of Arms, 12 June 1899.