Historical story

Chapter – 57 – Prominent Scientist of India – Professor Chandrasekhar Venkataraman (CV Raman)

Famous scientist of India Prof. Chandrasekhar Venkataraman holds a special place among the physicists of the world. He was the first Indian scientist to receive the world's highest 'Nobel Prize' Awarded.

Chandrasekhar Venkataraman was born on 7 November 1888 in Tiruvalekkaval village near Tiruchirappalli town of Tamil Nadu. His father Chandrasekhar Iyer was a professor of physics and mother Parvati Ammal was a woman from a cultured family. Chandrasekhar Venkataraman's early education took place in Visakhapatnam. The natural beauty of the place and the association of scholars greatly influenced Chandrasekhar Venkataraman.

Chandrasekhar Venkataraman passed the matriculation examination at the age of twelve. In those days, Chandrasekhar Venkataraman had the privilege of listening to Mrs. Annie Besant's speeches and reading articles. Chandrasekhar Venkataraman studied religious texts like Ramayana, Mahabharata etc. This created consciousness in his heart about the glorious past of India.

In AD 1903, he took admission in the Presidency College, Chennai. Venkataraman was very thin in body but his mind was very talented. His teachers were so impressed with his ability that he was exempted from attending classes. He used this time in the laboratory and library. They are B. a. In the examination of the university alone passed in the first division. He got gold medal in physics and was also rewarded on English essay.

In AD 1907, he obtained a first class M.A. in Mathematics from the University of Madras. Degree obtained with special qualification. He scored more marks in this subject than any other student had scored before. After passing the postgraduate examination, he wanted to go to England for higher education.

On the recommendation of physics professors, the Government of India accepted to send him to England by giving him a scholarship, but some European doctors stopped him from going to England due to being very weak in physical terms.

Research work

In AD 1906, at the age of 18, his first paper on diffraction of light - 'Unlimited diffraction bands due to rectangular holes' Published in the Philosophical Magazine of London. This paper was on his fundamental discovery in the field of phonetics. When a beam of light passes through a hole or on the edge of an opaque object and falls on a screen, bands of dim-intense or colored light appear at the edge of the rays.

This event 'Diffraction' is called Diffraction is a common characteristic of light. This shows that light is made up of waves. In its second year, another paper of his 'Nature' Published in the magazine, which 'Light-Science' was related to. In this interval he wrote many treatises on physics.

Chandrasekhar Venkataraman's family condition was not good. Therefore, he took the competitive examination of the Finance Department of the Government of India to get a job, in which he came first and in June 1907 he went to Calcutta as an Assistant Accountant General. At the same time he was married to Trilok Sundari, daughter of Krishnaswami.

One day when he was returning from office, he saw a sign board which read 'Indian Council for Scientific Studies (Indian Association for Cultivation of Science)'. They got off the tram at the same time and reached the council office and obtained permission to experiment in the council's laboratory.

After some time he was transferred first to Rangoon and then to Nagpur. He made a laboratory in his own house and when he got time, he started experimenting in it. In AD 1911, he was transferred again to Calcutta. They again started experimenting in the council's laboratory.

They continued to experiment till AD 1917. During this period he wrote 'Theory of vibration and work of sound' worked on the subject. In 1917, the post of Professor of Physics in Calcutta University was accepted, Vice Chancellor Ashutosh Mukherjee invited Chandrashekhar Venkataraman to accept this post. Chandrasekhar Venkataraman accepted this post by resigning from the government job.

Chandrasekhar Venkataraman spent some years at the University of Calcutta in 'Light walking in objects' studied. In these, the complete set of rays does not move exactly straight. Some part of it gets scattered by changing its course.

Ashutosh Mookerjee suggested him to go abroad and get a doctorate degree, but he refused to go abroad saying that- 'India is the whole storehouse of knowledge, so there is no way to get knowledge in the West. It's not a matter. India has been giving knowledge to the world and even today it has the ability to impart knowledge to the world.'

Till AD 1919, Venkataraman was the Vice-Chairman of the Indian Council of Scientific Research, but due to the death of Dr. Aritlal Sarkar, the head of the institution, Venkataraman was made the unpaid head of the institution. In AD 1921, a conference of universities of the British Empire was organized in London, in which he was sent to represent the University of Calcutta.

There, while other delegates were entertaining themselves by sightseeing in London, Chandrasekhar Venkataraman was busy deciphering the secrets of his whispering corridors in St. Paul's Church. In AD 1924, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Raman Effect

Pro. Raman was interested in the science of phonetics as well as in the science of optics. He was highly attracted to natural colours. While traveling to England, the wonderful blueness and milkiness of the sea impressed him a lot. British scientist Lord Raleigh attributed the blue appearance of the ocean to a type of scattering, which Professor Venkataraman was not satisfied with.

On his return to Calcutta, he started research on it. Chandrasekhar Venkataraman studied light waves for about seven years. In AD 1927, he noticed that when X rays are scattered, their wave lengths change. He wondered why this should not happen even in ordinary light? He created the spectrum of the mercury arc's light in a spectroscope.

Venkataraman placed different types of chemical substances between these two and made different spectrums by passing the light of the mercury arc through them. He observed that there is a difference in each spectrum and that each substance makes its own difference. Spectrum images were measured and explained theoretically and it was proved that this difference is due to the change in wavelength of mercury-light.

Chandrasekhar Venkataraman proved that ocean water appears blue due to sunlight. Not only in transparent substances but also in solid transparent materials like ice and crystals, light is dispersed due to the motion of molecules. 'Raman Effect' Known as.

On 29 February 1928, Chandrasekhar Venkataraman made his discovery public. 'Nature' on 31 March 1928 A paper based on his research in the journal- 'A New Type of a Secondary Radiation' Published under the title Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman discovered the Raman effect on 28 February, this day is celebrated as National Science Day in India in memory of it.

Study of sounds of musical instruments

Chandrasekhar Venkataraman was very proficient in playing Veena. He 'Kampanna' During research on the subject, he studied the sounds of various musical instruments and composed many treatises regarding music and instruments. He also invented many new instruments for the study of different types of musical sounds.

He had such a deep knowledge of the physics of instruments that Chandrasekhar Venkataraman had prepared the article on the physics of instruments for the eighth volume of the twenty-volume encyclopedia of physics published in Germany in AD 1927. He was the only non-German scientist in this dictionary.

Awards and titles

Chandrasekhar Venkataraman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for the discovery of the Raman Effect. This opened a new area for the research of the Raman effect. Chandrasekhar Venkataraman is 'knight' by the British government. which he rejected as a symbol of slavery. He was awarded the Mattucci Medal by the Italian Science Council, the Hughes Medal and honorary degrees by various universities around the world.

After retirement in 1948, he established Raman Research Institute Bangalore and started doing research in this institute. In AD 1949, the government of independent India gave him the first 'National Professor' Made and in AD 1954 he was 'Bharat Ratna' decorated with In 1957 he received the International Lenin Prize.

Invention of Ophthalmoscope

In 1960, Chandrasekhar Venkataraman used ' to see the retina of the eye. ophthalmoscope' Invented the device by which the composition and actions inside the eye can be easily seen. Not only this, you also discovered three colors in the retina and also found out the function and effect of these colors.

Pro. Raman was a very calm person and did not get distracted by the obstacles that came in his work. He used to say- 'We are striving till that time until we illuminate the western world with the light of the knowledge of the East.' On 2 October 1970, he delivered the Gandhi Memorial Lecture under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences, which was his last lecture. He died on 21 November 1970.