ANTENTOP- 02- 2003, # 003

Jagadis Chandra Bose

Figure 2. Bose's apparatus demonstrated to the Royal Institution in London in 1897 [8]. Note the waveguide radiator on the transmitter at left, and that the "collecting funnel" (F) is in fact a pyramidal electromagnetic horn antenna, first used by Bose.

By about the end of the 19th century, the interests of Bose turned away from electromagnetic waves to response phenomena in plants; this included studies of the effects of electromagnetic radiation on plants, a topical field today. He retired from the Presidency College in 1915, but was appointed Professor Emeritus. Two years later the Bose Institute was founded. Bose was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1920. He died in 1937, a week before his 80th birthday; his ashes are in a shrine at the Bose Institute in Calcutta.

The Radiator

Figure 3(a)

BOSE'S APPARATUS

Bose's experiments were carried out at the Presidency College in Calcutta, although for demonstrations he developed a compact portable version of the equipment, including transmitter, receiver and various microwave components. Some of his original equipment still exists, now at the Bose Institute in Calcutta. In 1985 the author was permitted by the Bose Institute to examine and photograph some of this original apparatus.

Figure 3 (a) shows Bose's diagram of one of his radiators, used for generating 5-mm radiation.

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