Pics: 1. G.Marconi, 2. J.C.Bose
Italian space scientist F.P.Marconi, grandson of G.Marconi, who won the Nobel Prize in 1909 for inventing Radio was in Kolkata to inaugurate the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Prof.Jagdish Chandra Bose. As a person spent most of the time in radio broadcasting, this bollger is really excited while writing on a small recent interview given by the grandson of the great Marconi on the contributions of J.C.Bose. Excerpts from the interview:
Why the contoversy lasted so long?
My grandfather was not educated like Prof.Bose, he was a self-taught technician.He invented the Radio using the detector invented by Prof.Bose.Moreover, his entire research was based on the work of Prof.Bose and a few scientists. The hue and cry continues even today because my grandfather did not match the intellectual capacity of Bose and thw world gave recognition to a technocrat instead of a scientist.
So, wasn't it injustice?
Oh Yes!. It was unfortunate that the Nobel committee failed to acknowledge the role of Prof Bose. However that cannot undermine my grandfathers achievement.
Has the Nobel committee always been fair?
No. This year too, Italian physcists believed that the Nobel for physics should have gone to Italian nuclear physcists, but went to the Japanese. Nobel committee is under political pressure.
Is Pure Science still popular in Europe?
No longer. The European youth aim to become financial executives ot technocrats, which offer hefty salaries. And Government don't encourage youth into science.
These are the excerpts of the interview appeared in the recent 'The Week magazine.
Why the contoversy lasted so long?
My grandfather was not educated like Prof.Bose, he was a self-taught technician.He invented the Radio using the detector invented by Prof.Bose.Moreover, his entire research was based on the work of Prof.Bose and a few scientists. The hue and cry continues even today because my grandfather did not match the intellectual capacity of Bose and thw world gave recognition to a technocrat instead of a scientist.
So, wasn't it injustice?
Oh Yes!. It was unfortunate that the Nobel committee failed to acknowledge the role of Prof Bose. However that cannot undermine my grandfathers achievement.
Has the Nobel committee always been fair?
No. This year too, Italian physcists believed that the Nobel for physics should have gone to Italian nuclear physcists, but went to the Japanese. Nobel committee is under political pressure.
Is Pure Science still popular in Europe?
No longer. The European youth aim to become financial executives ot technocrats, which offer hefty salaries. And Government don't encourage youth into science.
These are the excerpts of the interview appeared in the recent 'The Week magazine.
I just reproduce below the details of the J.C.Bose's works on the invention of Radio just for reference:
The British theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell mathematically predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves of diverse wavelengths, but he died in 1879 before his prediction was experimentally verified. British physicist Oliver Lodge demonstrated the existence of Maxwell’s waves transmitted along wires in 1887-88. The German physicist Heinrich Hertz showed experimentally, in 1888, the existence of electromagnetic waves in free space. Subsequently, Lodge pursued Hertz’s work and delivered a commemorative lecture in June 1894 (after Hertz’s death) and published it in book form. Lodge’s work caught the attention of scientists in different countries including Bose in India.
The first remarkable aspect of Bose’s follow up microwave research was that he reduced the waves to the millimetre level (about 5 mm wavelength). He realised the disadvantages of long waves for studying their light like-properties
In 1893, Nikola Tesla demonstrated the first public radio communication.One year later, during a November 1894 (or 1895) public demonstration in Kolkata, Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using millimetre range wavelength microwaves. Lieutenant Governor Sir William Mackenzie witnessed Bose's demonstration in the Calcutta Town Hall. Bose wrote in a Bengali essay, Adrisya Alok (Invisible Light), "The invisible light can easily pass through brick walls, buildings etc. Therefore, messages can be transmitted by means of it without the mediation of wires."[12] In Russia, Popov performed similar experiments. In December 1895, Popov's records indicate that he hoped for distant signalling with radio waves.
Bose’s first scientific paper, "On polarisation of electric rays by double-refracting crystals" was communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in May 1895, within a year of Lodge’s paper. His second paper was communicated to the Royal Society of London by Lord Rayleigh in October 1895. In December 1895, the London journal the Electrician (Vol 36) published Bose’s paper, "On a new electro-polariscope". At that time, the word ‘coherer’, coined by Lodge, was used in the English-speaking world for Hertzian wave receivers or detectors. The Electrician readily commented on Bose’s coherer. (December 1895). The Englishman (18 January 1896) quoted from the Electrician and commented as follows:
"Should Professor Bose succeed in perfecting and patenting his ‘Coherer’, we may in time see the whole system of coast lighting throughout the navigable world revolutionised by a Bengali scientist working single handed in our Presidency College Laboratory."
Bose planned to "perfect his coherer" but never thought of patenting it.
In May 1897, two years after Bose's public demonstration in Kolkata, Marconi conducted his wireless signalling experiment on Salisbury Plain. Bose went to London on a lecture tour in 1896 and met Marconi, who was conducting wireless experiments for the British post office. In an interview, Bose expressed disinterest in commercial telegraphy and suggested others use his research work. In 1899, Bose announced the development of a "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal Society, London.
It appears that Bose's demonstration of remote wireless signalling has priority over Marconi. He was the first to use a semiconductor junction to detect radio waves, and he invented various now commonplace microwave components. In 1954, Pearson and Brattain gave priority to Bose for the use of a semi-conducting crystal as a detector of radio waves. Further work at millimetre wavelengths was almost nonexistent for nearly 50 years. In 1897, Bose described to the Royal Institution in London his research carried out in Kolkata at millimetre wavelengths. He used waveguides, horn antennas, dielectric lenses, various polarisers and even semiconductors at frequencies as high as 60 GHz; much of his original equipment is still in existence, now at the Bose Institute in Kolkata. A 1.3 mm multi-beam receiver now in use on the NRAO 12 Metre Telescope, Arizona, U.S.A. incorporates concepts from his original 1897 papers.
Neville Francis Mott, Nobel Laureate in 1977 for his own contributions to solid-state electronics, remarked that "J.C. Bose was at least 60 years ahead of his time" and "In fact, he had anticipated the existence of P-type and N-type semiconductors."
Love from SGK
The British theoretical physicist James Clerk Maxwell mathematically predicted the existence of electromagnetic waves of diverse wavelengths, but he died in 1879 before his prediction was experimentally verified. British physicist Oliver Lodge demonstrated the existence of Maxwell’s waves transmitted along wires in 1887-88. The German physicist Heinrich Hertz showed experimentally, in 1888, the existence of electromagnetic waves in free space. Subsequently, Lodge pursued Hertz’s work and delivered a commemorative lecture in June 1894 (after Hertz’s death) and published it in book form. Lodge’s work caught the attention of scientists in different countries including Bose in India.
The first remarkable aspect of Bose’s follow up microwave research was that he reduced the waves to the millimetre level (about 5 mm wavelength). He realised the disadvantages of long waves for studying their light like-properties
In 1893, Nikola Tesla demonstrated the first public radio communication.One year later, during a November 1894 (or 1895) public demonstration in Kolkata, Bose ignited gunpowder and rang a bell at a distance using millimetre range wavelength microwaves. Lieutenant Governor Sir William Mackenzie witnessed Bose's demonstration in the Calcutta Town Hall. Bose wrote in a Bengali essay, Adrisya Alok (Invisible Light), "The invisible light can easily pass through brick walls, buildings etc. Therefore, messages can be transmitted by means of it without the mediation of wires."[12] In Russia, Popov performed similar experiments. In December 1895, Popov's records indicate that he hoped for distant signalling with radio waves.
Bose’s first scientific paper, "On polarisation of electric rays by double-refracting crystals" was communicated to the Asiatic Society of Bengal in May 1895, within a year of Lodge’s paper. His second paper was communicated to the Royal Society of London by Lord Rayleigh in October 1895. In December 1895, the London journal the Electrician (Vol 36) published Bose’s paper, "On a new electro-polariscope". At that time, the word ‘coherer’, coined by Lodge, was used in the English-speaking world for Hertzian wave receivers or detectors. The Electrician readily commented on Bose’s coherer. (December 1895). The Englishman (18 January 1896) quoted from the Electrician and commented as follows:
"Should Professor Bose succeed in perfecting and patenting his ‘Coherer’, we may in time see the whole system of coast lighting throughout the navigable world revolutionised by a Bengali scientist working single handed in our Presidency College Laboratory."
Bose planned to "perfect his coherer" but never thought of patenting it.
In May 1897, two years after Bose's public demonstration in Kolkata, Marconi conducted his wireless signalling experiment on Salisbury Plain. Bose went to London on a lecture tour in 1896 and met Marconi, who was conducting wireless experiments for the British post office. In an interview, Bose expressed disinterest in commercial telegraphy and suggested others use his research work. In 1899, Bose announced the development of a "iron-mercury-iron coherer with telephone detector" in a paper presented at the Royal Society, London.
It appears that Bose's demonstration of remote wireless signalling has priority over Marconi. He was the first to use a semiconductor junction to detect radio waves, and he invented various now commonplace microwave components. In 1954, Pearson and Brattain gave priority to Bose for the use of a semi-conducting crystal as a detector of radio waves. Further work at millimetre wavelengths was almost nonexistent for nearly 50 years. In 1897, Bose described to the Royal Institution in London his research carried out in Kolkata at millimetre wavelengths. He used waveguides, horn antennas, dielectric lenses, various polarisers and even semiconductors at frequencies as high as 60 GHz; much of his original equipment is still in existence, now at the Bose Institute in Kolkata. A 1.3 mm multi-beam receiver now in use on the NRAO 12 Metre Telescope, Arizona, U.S.A. incorporates concepts from his original 1897 papers.
Neville Francis Mott, Nobel Laureate in 1977 for his own contributions to solid-state electronics, remarked that "J.C. Bose was at least 60 years ahead of his time" and "In fact, he had anticipated the existence of P-type and N-type semiconductors."
Love from SGK
