LIFE AND WORK OF SIR C. V. RAMAN - Inspiration

Sir C V Raman is an inspiration to all of us.

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

2. Who was Sir C. V. 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 8
th

Nov. 1888 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.
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).
House in Tiruvanaikkaval in Tamil
Nadu where Raman was born.

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.
His teachers suggested tat he should go to England to prepare for Indian Civil Service (ICS)
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.

5. 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.
Medical Examination
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.
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.
In 1907 in his teenage he appointed as an Assistant Acoountant, in Calcutta (Kolkata)
with Fabulous amount of salary those days. Salary : Rs. 400 ; Marriage
Allowances: Rs. 150
Lady Raman, often used to joke that
Raman decided to marry to get extra
allowances.
Raman with his wife (Lady Raman)

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 (1907-1917)
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 pmFrom office directly to Association
Sunday (Whole day) Whole day dedicated to Association.
For almost ten years, Raman literally led a double life.
Time-Table
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
The mechanical violin player devised by Raman
❖ 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.

13. Palit Professor of Physics
1907-1917 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. 1100. 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. 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 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 28
th
February 1928
Arrangement used by Raman and Krishnan
Arrangement used by Raman to photograph
Raman Shift in several liquids
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.
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. Conclusion
THANK YOU