| BIRR (cont.) So what did Ball achieve at Birr ? Well in addition to discovering several more spiral nebula, he also corrected and collated much of the information amassed by Rosse and previous incumbents during the preceding 15 years. It was his mathematical skill and his use of the micrometer during many hours at the eyepiece of the Leviathan that produced these results. This prevented further duplication of work,but it did not always please his team of assistants who were often kept up till dawn. He also built his own 6” reflector in Rosse’s workshops, and when he was not involved with his tutoring, enjoyed fishing for pike in the great lake, and even felling trees on the estate. Although overshadowed by the 72”, there was the second scope at Birr, the 36” reflector,which Ball used frequently as it did not require the team of five assistants necessary to move the Leviathan into position. Ball had been at Birr for nearly two years when he heard that the newly created Royal College of Science in Dublin had a vacancy for a Mathematics professor. He applied and with Rosse’s blessing and no doubt influence, left Birr to pursue his academic career. Rosse had not been well for a long time and died not long after Ball left, early in 1867. Robert never forgot his 2 years at Birr, and remained in contact with Rosse’s sons for the rest of his life. Rosse’s most famous son was Charles Parsons, inventor of the steam turbine, which at the turn of the century powered many Royal navy ships and the great liners Mauritania, Lusitania and of course Titanic. In later life he bought into the Grubb optical business which then became the telescope makers, Grubb Parsons. There was one recollection of his time at Birr that was to jog his memory every time he saw it in an observatory. It was Rosse’s magnificent drawing of the Orion Nebula, which took him years to complete, and which was engraved by James Basire. Copies were sent to observatories world-wide. This was a time when Ball was coming to the notice of eminent scientists in Ireland and elsewhere. He was already a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and following in the footsteps of his father a committee member of the Royal Zoological Society, In 1873 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. Dublin society welcomed him and he had many influential friends. Whilst at Birr, he had made several visits with Rosse to London, where he met many of the country’s leading scientists including Sir Charles Wheatstone, Warren de la Rue, Charles Babbage and Sir William Huggins, who at the time was publishing the results of his work with the spectroscope; in particular the gaseous nature of nebulae. But it was not until 1874 that fame really came his way. He applied for and was appointed Andrews professor of Astronomy at Trinity, and with it the Directorship of Dunsink Observatory, just 4 miles outside Dublin. Not only that, but the title Astronomer Royal for Ireland was conferred on him. He was 34 years old; and his career in Astronomy now seemed secure. |
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