Robert Kane (chemist)
| Sir Robert Kane | |
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Robert Kane
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| Born | 24 September 1809 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 16 February 1890 (aged 80) |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Fields | chemist |
| Notable awards | Royal Medal (1841) |
Sir Robert John Kane, KBE (24 September 1809 – 16 February 1890) was an Irish chemist and educator.
Kane was born at 48 Henry Street, Dublin on 24 September 1809 to John and Eleanor Kean (née 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 young Kane studied chemistry at his father's factory, and attended lectures at the Royal Dublin Society as a teenager. He published his first paper in 1828, Observations on the existence of chlorine in the native peroxide of manganese, in the London Quarterly Journal of Science, Literature and Art. The following year, his description of the natural arsenide of manganese resulted in the compound being named Kaneite in his honour. He studied medicine at Trinity College, Dublin, graduating in 1834 whilst working in the Meath Hospital. He was appointed Professor of Chemistry at the Apothecaries' Hall, Dublin in 1831, which earned him the moniker of the "boy professor". In the following year he participated in the founding of the Dublin Journal of Medical Science.
On the strength of his book Elements of Practical Pharmacy he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy in 1832. He studied acids, showed that hydrogen was electropositive, and proposed the existence of the ethyl radical. In 1836 he travelled to Gießen in Germany to study organic chemistry with Justus von Liebig. In 1843 he was awarded the Royal Irish Academy's Cunningham Medal for his work on the nature and constitution of compounds of Ammonia.
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