[nukkad] JC Bose

[adheer <>]

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I'm sometimes asked "Why do you spend so much of your time and 
money talking about kindness to animals when there is so much cruelty to men?" 
I answer: "I am working at the roots." -George T. Angell, reformer (1823-1909)
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an article published in 1998
..............................	

This year we are celebrating the golden jubilee of the
nvention of transistor. But do you know that, the year
1998, is also a centenary 
year of another great invention of this century, not
only of this century, but also one 
of the greatest inventions made in the history of
human civilization? 

But unfortunately, that great inventor didn't get the
recognition he deserved. The 
name of that great scientist was Acharya Jagadish
Chandra Bose, a name every Indian should boast of and
the invention was Radio wave communication.

Sir Bose, today is internationally famous as the
father of modern plant biology. So, it is, by far, an
exceptional case, that a single person is 
creating landmarks in two apparently non-correlated
fields, and the man who can perform this miracle, is a
genius indeed.

In his short story, entitled, "The Exile", celebrity
author  Leo Tolstoy made a comment, "God sees the
truth, but waits.." That's what exactly 
happened in case of Sir J.C. Bose. In the '90s of the
19th  century, Sir. J.C. Bose, who was then a
professor of Physics Department in the Presidency
College,Calcutta,an institution with golden heritage,
started his research work in solid-state 
physics and its applications in microwave, which was a
very new concept those days. He invented a method to
transmit and receive 5 millimeter waves. 

In the year 1899, he came out with solid state diode.
Further, he made a device called "Coherer" which could
transmit and receive radio waves, which used a 
mercury tube and telephone. He gave a demonstration of
this device in front of the then Governor. But,
unfortunately, the world knew Marconi as the inventor
of Radio waves for 100 years. It was a long history of
deceit and dishonesty which Sir Bose became the victim
of. 
	
During the early 1899, Italian experimentalist
Gulielmo Marconi secretly started his experiments to
establish the Radio communication between 
Europe and America. Thereafter, he began to carry out
intense studies about the radio wave 
detectors devised by Sir Bose, during late 1900 and
early 1901. One of Marconi's close friends, Luigi
Solari, who was working as a lieutenant in the 
Italian Navy at that time, drew Marconi's attentions
to the devices invented by Sir Jagadish.
 
Solari made minor changes in that device, e.g., he
changed that U -tube to a 
straight tube and made a device which was just a
replica of the Bose's instrument and presented it to
Marconi. Marconi applied for a patent on that 
device on the 9th September, 1901. While Marconi and
Solari were involved in these experiments, another 
naval technician Paolo Castelli also proceeded along 
the same way shown by Sir Bose. 

In 1901, Marconi sent the Morse code "S" from Poldhu,
UK to St.Johns,the then capital of New  Foundland,
which was on the east coast of Canada. There 
was only one witness of this incident, Mr. Cemp who
received the signal. 

He didn't even record the dot-dash diagram of the
common Morse code which could easily have been taken
using a relay in tandem with the coherer. Marconi 
was felicitated in USA and in his country for sending
the radio signal across the Atlantic but never ever
mentioned anything about Sir Bose. 

In several writings,Marconi admitted that he had no
education or qualification about radio 
waves, and it's true indeed. Because, at the age of
22, it's not possible without any university 
education, which he didn't have.

After Marconi delivered the presentation on his works,
people from different parts of the world and from
Italy as well, started to raise doubts 
regarding the mechanism of the coherer device used by
Marconi. Finally he was told to deliver a lecture on
his invention in The Royal Institution, 
London on the 13th June, 1902. Now the time came for
Marconi to answer to that most important question,
"Who is the inventor of the coherer that uses
mercury?" He was shrewd enough to find out some mean
tactics to create even more confusion 
and to keep the works of Sir Bose unveiled. He told
the august audience in Royal Institution that he
designed a number of coherers and one of them used 
mercury,which was in no way coherent with his speech
made in New York in front of AIEEE 
personnel where he had mentioned that he only invented
one coherer. 

Gradually,he began to shift towards "mercury coherer"
from "iron coherer", i.e.,Bose's coherer, but never
made any reference to Sir Bose. 

After 25 years of this incident Mr. Vivian, who was an
assistant to Marconi, wrote the biography of  Marconi
where he clearly mentioned that it was 
nothing but the " mercury coherer" that Marconi used. 

In one interview with Mr.H.J.W. Dam for the "McClure"
magazine, in response to the question, 
"What is the difference between these electrical
waves, that can penetrate through 
mountains, buildings etc., and  Hertz waves?", Marconi
could only utter, " I can't say that, since I'm  not a
 scientist. In fact, I doubt whether 
any scientist knows it at all.  But I can have a faint
guess, that it may have something to do with
waves...." 

Actually, the main difference between them is the
penetration power.Hertz waves can't propagate through
water, but other radiomagnetic waves can. 

What an irony of fate, the person who doesn't know
anything about the radio wave, its origin,
characteristics and never mentioned anything about 
microwaves or radiowaves in any of his interviews or
lectures, was awarded with the Noble 
prize and acclaimed as the father of solid state and
microwaves. But the person,who actually explained
these two features and after a prolonged 
research, could  transmit and receive the millimeter
waves, devised the instrument from which the 
microwaves generated and transmitted for the first
time, remained overshadowed in the history of science,
left out as one of those unsung men deprived 
of all accolades. 

But, truth can never be concealed. After the untiring
efforts of many years, some Indian scientists
throughout the globe, recently have come 
out with original facts. IEEE also has accepted these
things and declared this phenomenon as one of the
greatest blunders in the history of scientific 
inventions. They are coming out with a detailed report
on it in the January issue of their monthly journal.
Not only radiowaves, there are many other fields that 
Sir Bose explored through. He was a man of exceptional
qualities, a versatile genius in true sense. Some of
his works include, Galena detector for detecting 
infrared waves, Horn aerial, which is the ancestor of
the modern-day parabolic dish aerials, diffraction
grating device to measure the wave length of 
radiowaves and many more. But in most of the cases,
shamefully western scientists took the credit. But now
IEEE has accepted each of his inventions. During, his 
lifetime,he was not at all aware of all the dark games
being played against him behind the screen. His view
was, "It is the invention which is of importance 
for the mankind, not the inventor." Can you find any
peer of such a noble man?It's our great pride that
such a great scholar was born in our country. 



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