1. NATIONAL SCIENCE DAY CELEBRATION “LIFE AND WORK OF SIR C. V. RAMAN ”
Talk on
“LIFE AND WORK OF SIR C. V. RAMAN ”
27th February 2017
Anand S. Burange
Wilson College, Mumbai

2. Who was Sir C. V. Raman? What is so special about Raman?
There are many scientists who won the Nobel Prizes in Science of Indian origin who did their experimental work in abroad and many of them had citizenship of other countries.
What is so special about Raman?
During British Raj in India, Raman started working independently when it was very difficult to do career in research. He is the man who gave Raman effect to the world where all the experiments were performed in our own motherland and received Nobel Prize in 1930 for discovery of Raman Effect.

3. School Days: He was a voracious reader
Birth:
He was born to R. Chandrasekar Iyer (Father) and Parvathi Ammal (Mother) on 8th Nov in village near Tiruchirapalli in South India.
About Father:
His father was a physics teacher who moved with his family to Vishakhapatnam when Raman was just four year old. His father was good athlete and physically strong.
Raman:
He lacked physical strengh, he more than made up with his mental abilities. In his schooling, he was a student of first rank.
House in Tiruvanaikkaval in Tamil Nadu where Raman was born.
Raman: a voracious reader
He used to read the books from his father’s collection which made great impact on his mind later. One of these was a volume of Helmholtz (German Scientist).

4. College Life
Raman passed out from school when he was eleven years old. After school he moved to Mrs. Narasimharao College, Vishakhapatnam (his father was faculty in same college) and spent two years there.
Presidency College, Chennai, Today
Presidency College, Madras
His English Prof. Elliot asked him that “Do you really belong to Junior B.A.?”
He was looking very young during his B. A. studies at Presidency College, Madras. In his B.A. examination, he stood first sweeping all the prizes.
His teachers suggested tat he should go to England to prepare for Indian Civil Service (ICS)

5. This was the only examination that Raman ever failed.
Moving to ICS
Those days (India in British-Raj), Indian Civil Services (ICS) was considered to be more prestigious than present times IAS exam.
For any Indian to enter the rank of ICS was considered the pinnacle of achievement.
Before moving to England for ICS, one had to appear for a medical examination. Unfortunately, civil surgeon of Madras who examined Raman, declared him unfit to for England.
Medical Examination
This was the only examination that Raman ever failed.

6. NOW WHAT?
Raman was least bothered that he could no go abroad. He enrolled for M.A. choosing Physics as his subject of interest.
He became minor celebrity in his college since all Professors gave him complete freedom to do what he liked. (Physics professor: Prof. Jones).
Raman made significant use of given freedom and tried many new experiments not mentioned in a text book.
Completed M.A. in 1907, won all prizes.
Light falling on a narrow slit produces diffraction bands. When light is normally incident, bands are well explained by wave theory of light.
What happened if light is incident obliquely? He set new experiment and got new observation.
He was the first student from presidency College to publish a Research Paper.
During M.A. he also published another article dealt with new method of
measuring surface tension of a liquid

7. When there is no option……..
Those days there was no career in India for Indian to do research.
For his bread and butter, he chose Financial Civil Services (FCS), cracked exam and when he gave his interview, he declared by taking one look at all the candidates that he was going to stand first and indeed he did.
FCS is a forerunner of Today’s Indian Administrative Services (IAS).
Meanwhile Raman got married to a young girl named Lokasundari from Madurai.
Raman with his wife (Lady Raman)
Lady Raman, often used to joke that Raman decided to marry to get extra allowances.
In 1907 in his teenage he appointed as an Assistant Acoountant, in Calcutta (Kolkata) with Fabulous amount of salary those days. Salary : Rs ; Marriage Allowances: Rs. 150

8. When Raman saw board IACS…….
Raman used to go office by tram in Calcutta (capital of British Empire) while working as Assistant Accountant General. One day at Calcutta street, he saw a board with words, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS). His curiosity lead him to the door of IACS, the door was opened by Ashutosh Dey (Ashu Babu) who latter become right-hand of C. V. Raman.
When Ashu Babu opened the door, Raman stepped in to find the place deserted with no sign of activity.
About IACS
IACS was founded by 1876 by a man called Mahendra Lal Sircar (Unsung Hero) (Born 1833). He was a great patriot, in nationalistic outlook, he began to think hard about country problems and founded research association IACS. Unfortunately nobody did research at Association and he died in 1904 disappointed man.

9. IACS continues….
Nephew of Mahendra Lal Sircar, Amrit wanted to know why Raman was interested ? Then Raman explained that though he was employed in Government service, he was to do research in Physics and to prove his credentials he quoted his articles published while studying at Presidency College.
Amrit Lal Sircar could not believe his ears. In whole life of late. Mahendra Lal Sircar, though he founded IACS, created facilities for people to do research but yet no one came.
Raman was ready to work without expecting salary even an honorarium.
Amrit Lal shed a silent tear in memory of his departed uncle and immediately handed over keys of building and the freedom to work to Raman.

10. Research at IACS ( )
For almost ten years, Raman literally led a double life.
Time-Table
Time
Task
5:30 am
Raman goes to the Association.
9:45 am
Returns for bath, breakfast and leaves for office.
10:30 am to 5:00 pm
Office time
5:00 pm to 9:30 pr 10: 00 pm
From office directly to Association
Sunday (Whole day)
Whole day dedicated to Association.
He published his research findings in leading scientific journals like Nature,
The Philosophical Magzine and Physical Review (America).

11. Science as a Pastime: Work on Musical Instruments
Lord Rayleigh, observed that when a tuning fork of frequency 256 Hz is excited and mounted on a resonance box of frequency 512 Hz, the box emitted the strong note of 512 Hz where primary tone of 256 Hz was completely suppressed.
Raman wondered to know whether there exist other examples of systems emitting tones of frequency.
Schematic of experiment of Lord Rayleigh
Raman did extensive work on musical instruments like violin, tabla, veena, mridangam, ectara, etc.

12. Science as a Pastime: Work on Musical Instruments
Schematic of Ektara
used by Sadhus
Top: The tabla; Bottom: The mridangam
Left: The tambura; Right: The veena
Ectara:Raman observed when string is plucked, it increases tension as well as length. He observed that tension varies at twice frequency of wire.
Violin: Very few know that Raman did some outstanding research on physics of violin. Methods used for characterising the quality of the instrument given by Raman are even used today.
Mridangam: Raman investigated the various nodal lines and circles by simply strewing a little fine chalk powder on the membrane either before or immediately after striking the drumhead.
The mechanical violin player devised by Raman

13. Palit Professor of Physics
Raman played a dual role. One is efficient government official and othe an exceptional physicist and his research attracted great physicist of that time like Rayleigh and Helmholtz. And made dream of late MahendraLal Sircar true.
His salary in 1917 was Rs He was expected to be a Member of Finance and latter may be Finance Minister in Viceroy’s Council.
But in 1917, he got an offer from Calcutta university as Palit Professor with the salary of 600 Rs. (lesser than earlier job).
What is Palit Professorship?
The Palit chair of Physics is a physics professorship in the University of Calcutta, India. The name of the post ‘Palit’ is named after Sir Tarakhnath Palit who donated Rs. 1.5 million to the university.
Raman accepted the offer and appointed as first Palit Professor in Physics in 1917.

14. I will not go abroad instead I’m ready to train foreigners in Calcutta
New Era started….
British-Raj and Research
Those days British were giving funding to only those institutions having British researchers. For Palit Fuding, British Govt. asked Raman for foreign research experience.
I will not go abroad instead I’m ready to train foreigners in Calcutta
Raman replied
Research in area of optics, sound and other aspects of physics was
started in full; swing.

15. University Congress at Oxford: First Abroad visit (1921)
In 1919, Amrit Lal Sircar passed away and Raman became the Honorary Secretary of the Association. Because of him IACS got international recognition and today it’s a deemed university.
In 1921, Raman went to attend University Congress at Oxford where he represented Calcutta University. Calcutta University conferred on him honorary doctorate degree same year.
While coming from abroad he was sharing his abroad trip experience to villagers of his hometown. A young boy asked “Did you not find it embarrassing to move around London in a Madrasi turban? :Then Raman shared an incident happened while attending lecture of sir Rutherford at Royal Institution.
Professor Raman, Why are you sitting there all alone in the back row? Come up here in front.
Lord Rutherford

16. Why Sea is Blue?
Rayleigh successfully explained the blue colour of the sky. According him to him the blue colour of deep sea is because of the reflection of the sky in the sea but Raman was not conviced by it.
While coming from oxford, people were enjoying blue sea but Raman was observing, examining the sea. When Ship reached Aiden, passengers went out to feel earth but Raman rushes to mail his observations in the form of article to Nature journal.
When ship reached Bombay harbour, his was done with his calculations and understood by sea is blue and completed another research article for nature.
Raman proved that molecules of water scatter light just the same way molecules of air do.
In 1924 Raman was elected as a Fellow of Royal Society.
Ashu Babu asked “Now What?” : Of Course Nobel Prize.

17. Raman Shift in several liquids
Raman Effect
Compton awarded Nobel Prize for his effect known as compton effect. He observed that X-ray changed frequency after scattering. It was great news for and he believed that alike X-ray, UV-Vis do the same. He started experiments with K. S. Krishan.
Finally on 28th February 1928
Arrangement used by Raman to photograph
Raman Shift in several liquids
Arrangement used by Raman and Krishnan
Sommerfeld (Gerrmany), his four students Pauli, Bethe, Heisenber and Debye all won Nobel prize also visited Raman’s IACS laboratory.

18. Who got there first?
Russian physicists Lansdberg and Mandel’shtam used quartz for scattering and got there first but unfortunately they communicated their work in May 1928 but in mean time sixteen papers from Raman appeared.
Story of Quartz and Landsberg is famous.
Raman was expecting Nobel prize in 1928 itself but it went to Richardson, 1929 went to de Broglie. In 1930, Raman already booked tickets to attend Nobel prize ceremony though it was declared from Stockholm.

19. Students of Sir C V Raman
K. R. Ramanathan
He became Director of Physics Research Laboratory in Ahmedabad founded by Vikram Sarabhai in 1966.
Suri Bhagvantam
Served as a Vice-Chancellor of Osmania University, Hyderabad and as a Director fo Indian Institute of Science and scientific adviser to the Defence Minister.
K. S. Krishnan
Served as Satyen Bose Fellow in Dacca university and a Founder Director of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

20. Thanks for patience hearing!!!
Conclusion
Thanks for patience hearing!!!