Background
He was born at Queenstown (today known as Cobh), County Cork.
He was born at Queenstown (today known as Cobh), County Cork.
Dublin University conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Laws He became Secretary of the newly founded Queen"s University of Ireland in 1851, and was a Fellow of the Royal Society. Robert Ball was the father of the Astronomer Royal Sir Robert Stawell Ball, Valentine Ball (1843-1895) C.B., Bachelor,Master of Arts, Doctor of Laws, Fellow of the Royal Society a geologist and naturalist, Professor at Trinity College Dublin, and Sir Charles Bent Ball (1851–1916) Bachelor, Bachelor of Medicine, Master of Surgery, FRCSI, a surgeon and botanist.
The Ball family lived in Youghal, County Cork. After a career in the civil service he became Director of the Dublin University Museum in 1844. About 1838 Robert Ball devised a dredge Netto to collect marine organisms.
lieutenant was used all over the world, and was so apt for its purpose that it was little modified later.
lieutenant is known as or more generally simply "the dredge". consists of a rectangular Netto attached to a rectangular frame much longer than high, and furnished with rods stretching from the four corners to meet at a point where they are attached to the dredge rope. lieutenant differed from the dredge Netto devised by Otto Friedrich Müller in the slit-like shape of the opening, which prevents much of the " washing out " suffered by the earlier pattern, and in the edges.
The long edges only are fashioned as scrapers, being wider and heavier than Muller"s, especially in later dredges. The short edges are of round iron Barometer
Ball died as a result of a ruptured aorta on 30 March 1857.
Royal Society; Royal Irish Academy]
He was a Member of the Royal Irish Academy and President of the Geological Society of Ireland.