Observations placeholder

SIR JAGADISH CHANDRA BOSE - the unsung Hero of Radio Communication

This page is dedicated to highlight the contribution of Sir J. C. Bose to (primarily) the invention of radio.   It celebrates and seeks to acquaint and enthuse researchers, academicians and professionals about the works of Sir J. C. Bose, which remained unnoticed till recently. Also, this information will be of interest to people studying the history of radio communication.

Achievements of Sir J. C. Bose in the field of communication
(In a Nutshell)

• Sir J. C. Bose invented the Mercury Coherer (together with the telephone receiver) used by Guglielmo Marconi to receive the radio signal in his first transatlantic radio communication over a distance of 2000 miles from Poldhu, UK to  Newfoundland, St. Johns in December 1901. Guglielmo Marconi was celebrated worldwide for this achievement, but the fact that the receiver was invented by Bose was totally ignored. Read Bose's original paper on the receiver device.

• In 1895, Sir J. C. Bose gave his first public demonstration of electromagnetic waves, using them to ring a bell remotely and to explode some gunpowder. He sent an electromagnetic wave across 75 feet passing through walls and body of the Chairman, Lieutenant Governor of Bengal.

• Sir J. C. Bose holds the first patent worldwide to invent a solid-state diode detector to detect EM waves. The detector was built using a galena crystal. Have a look at Bose's patent.

• Sir J. C. Bose was a pioneer in the field of microwave devices. His contribution remains distinguished in the field and was acknowledged by the likes of Lord Kelvin, Lord Rayleigh, etc. Read what people thought about J. C. Bose. Refer to [1,2] to study the work of J. C. Bose in the field of microwave.

Jagadish Chandra Bose: The Real Inventor of Marconi's Wireless Receiver
-Varun Aggarwal

In the year 1998, Dr. Probir K. Bondyopadhyay found out that it was actually Sir J. C. Bose who invented Marconi's Italian Navy Autocoherer. He explained the sequence of events in great detail in his paper, "Sir J. C. Bose's Diode Detector Received Marconi's First Transatlantic Wireless Signal Of December 1901 (The "Italian Navy Coherer" Scandal Revisited)." [ 3, Proc. IEEE, Vol. 86, No. 1, January 1998.]

Read a complete article covering the technical details of Marconi's experiment, the receiving device (coherer) and the chronology of events that took place when the first transatlantic wave was successfully transmitted. The article clearly proves that Sir J. C. Bose was the inventor of the Mercury Autocoherer.

The article goes into technical details and background to enable a person with no knowledge of history of radio communication to understand the contribution of Sir J. C. Bose clearly. You will definitely enjoy the concepts and devices used at a time when modulation was not known and diode had not been invented!

A short version of the complete article now published in Ancient Wireless Association Journal is available here.
(Citation: V. Aggarwal, "Jagadish Chandra Bose: The Real Inventor of Marconi’s Wireless Detector", The Ancient Wireless Association Journal, July 2006, Vol. 47/#3, pp. 50-54)

Experiments with a Replica of the Bose Detector
- K. L. Groenhaug

The autocoherer invented by Bose was nearly a solid state diode, which was actually invented some 50 years after the autocoherer was invented. Groenhaug built a replica of a Bose detector and compared its characteristics with that of a diode. Have a look at this interesting paper.