Background

Robert John Kane was born on September 24, 1809, in Dublin, Ireland, to John Kean and Eleanor Troy. His father was involved in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and fled for a time to France where he studied chemistry. Back in Dublin Kean (now Kane) founded the Kane Company and manufactured sulphuric acid. The son’s exposure to this business nurtured in him a precocious interest in chemistry.

Education

While still a schoolboy, Kane attended the lectures of the Royal Dublin Society and, when only twenty years old, described the natural arsenide of manganese.

Kane also had an early interest in medicine; in 1829 he became a licentiate of the Apothecaries’ Hall. In 1829 he also enrolled at Trinity College, Dublin, from which he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1835.

Career

In 1831 Kane became professor of chemistry at the Apothecaries’ Hall. In 1835 he published the Elements of Practical Pharmacy and founded the Dublin Journal of Medical and Chemical Science.

In 1834 Kane became lecturer (and subsequently professor) of natural philosophy at the Royal Dublin Society. He retained the post until 1847 and during this period carried out much research. In 1836 he spent three months at Liebig’s laboratory at Giessen, where he isolated acetone from wood spirit; in the following year he transformed this compound into a ring compound, which he called mesitylene. His writing also prospered. In 1840 he was appointed an editor of the Philosophical Magazine, and in 1840-1841 he published in three parts his Elements of Chemistry, which was successful in both Great Britain and America.

In 1844 Kane published Industrial Resources of Ireland and in the following year was appointed director of the newly formed Museum of Economic Geology in Dublin. Under his guidance the museum evolved into the Royal College of Science for Ireland. In 1845 Kane became president of Queen’s College, Cork. Because of the burden of administrative work his research lapsed, but he retained the editorship of the Philosophical Magazine until his death.

He also became a political adviser on scientific and industrial matters. He served on several commissions to enquire into the Great Irish Famine, along with Professors Lindley and Taylor, all more or less ineffective. His political and administrative work meant that his contribution to chemistry ceased after about 1844.

Achievements

• Robert John Kane went down in history as a pioneer in science, industry and commerce, and the first president of Queen's College.
  
  The natural arsenide of manganese, which he described during his studies, was named Kaneite in his honor.
  
  For his work on the metallic compounds of ammonia and on the chemical history of archil and litmus, he received medals from the Royal Irish Academy and the Royal Society of London in 1841.
  
  He was knighted in 1846.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Elements of Chemistry 1849
  • The Industrial Resources of Ireland 1844

Membership

In 1849 Kane became a fellow of the Royal Society of London.

• 

  Fellow

  Royal Society of London , England

  1849

Connections

Kane married Katherine Sophia Baily on August 23, 1838, with whom he had seven surviving children. His eldest son Robert Romney Kane was known as a barrister. The second son, Henry Coey Kane, became an admiral in the Royal Navy.

Father:

John Kane

Mother:

Eleanor Troy

Spouse:

Sophia Baily

Son:

Robert Romney Kane

Son:

Henry Coey Kane

References

• Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Volume 7
  1973