Valentine Ball, an Irish geologist who worked in Bengal, was born on this day.
He joined the Geological Survey of India in 1864 and at first surveyed coalfields and source places of other minerals in Bengal and other parts of India.
His knowledge of the places he had worked in made the British authorities consult him on a proposed railway between Bombay and Kolkata. He became a Fellow of Calcutta University.
His writings about India show his varied interests. His books include Jungle-Life in India, The Diamonds, Coal, and Gold of India and The Economic Geology of India.
He wrote for Stray Feathers, a journal of ornithology founded by Allan Octavian Hume, who named a bird after Ball: Otus balli, an Andaman owl.
On his return to Ireland Ball occupied several distinguished posts, including director of the Dublin Science and Art Museum, which became the National Museum of Ireland.
