Abstract
UNDER the auspices of the Chemical Society of University College, Cork, Mr. D. 0. Raghallaigh has recently issued an interesting booklet of forty-three pages dealing with the life and work of Sir Robert Kane (1809-1890), a pioneer of chemistry and of industry in Ireland. Kane studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, and became professor of chemistry at the Irish Apothecaries' Hall at the age of twenty-two. After his appointment to the chair of natural philosophy at the Royal Dublin Society in 1834, he published his important work on am-moniacal compounds of mercury, copper and zinc. This was followed in 1840 by a, research on the colouring matter of lichens, and soon afterwards Kane was elected F. R. S. His “Elements of Chemistry”, completed in 1843, achieved fame as a standard text-book. He took far-sighted views of Irish industries and agriculture ; for example, he directed attention to the chemical potentialities of Irish peat and potatoes, and depicted the Shannon Valley as the future industrial centre of Ireland. In organic chemistry he accomplished the first synthesis of a cyclic compound (mesitylene) from an open-chain one (acetone). In 1845 Kane became the first president of the new Queen's College, Cork, and in the following year he was knighted for his services to science and Irish industry. After his resignation of the presidency in 1873 he became first dean of the Royal College of Science for Ireland, and later he was appointed vice-chancellor of the Royal University. One of Kane's sons commanded H. M. S. Calliope in the historic escape of this ship from Samoa Harbour during the hurricane of March 15, 1889.
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Sir Robert Kane. Nature 150, 544 (1942). https://doi.org/10.1038/150544a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/150544a0