Robert Ball

Robert Ball (1 April 1802 – 30 March 1857) was an Irish naturalist. He served as the director of the Dublin University Museum, and developed a method of dredging known as "Ball's dredge." He served as a secretary to the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland for two decades and was responsible for popularizing natural history through public educational outreach.

Life He was born at Queenstown, County Cork. He was the third child of Bob Stawell Ball, a customs official, and Mary Ball (née Green). The Ball family lived in Youghal, County Cork. Robert had two sisters who shared his interest in nature, Anne, a well-known phycologist, and Mary, an entomologist. He also had a brother, Bent (7 March 1806 - 19 May 1860), who did not appear to pursue any interest in these fields. He initially attended a school in Clonakilty, before attending a Quaker school in Ballitore, County Kildare where his interest for natural history was developed with encouragement from his schoolmaster James White. He returned to Youghal in 1824 to take up a post as a magistrate which involved travel and was sometimes dangerous, even escaping an assassination attempt, but aided his natural history specimen collecting. He left Youghal for Dublin in 1827, and as he was unable to afford medical studies he worked for 20 years in the civil service, firstly as clerk in the Constabulary and Yeomanry Office, Dublin, and later assistant librarian and keeper of records at the same. He considered the work as "soul-subduing slavery" and pursued his natural history interests, actively associating with the local scientific circles. Ball left the civil service in 1852 with a small pension, as it was deemed he spent too much of his time on scientific pursuits than was suitable for a public servant.

Ball then became a director of the Dublin University Museum in 1844. Later on that year he was appointed director of the museum in Trinity College. He donated his collection of 7000 bird skins to the museum. He also served as a secretary to the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland from 1837 to 1857 and was responsible for making the zoo more publicly accessible with a one-penny fee for Sunday afternoons. In 1838, Ball developed a dredge net, also known today as "Ball's dredge," to collect marine organisms.

After a career in the civil service he became director of the Dublin University Museum in 1844. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and president of the Royal Geological Society of Ireland.

Dublin University conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in 1850. He became secretary of the newly founded Queen's University of Ireland in 1851, and was nominated to be a Fellow of the Royal Society, however he died before he could be formally elected. On 30 March 1857 Ball died as a result of a ruptured aorta at his home at 3 Granby Row, Dublin. He is buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery and Crematorium, Dublin.