REVELATIONS & REVOLUTIONS
After the war of currents, our life changed. Electricity became a commodity and an important aspect of our lives. But, in the scientific world, some of the other things was the topic of research. Electricity produces an invisible force field which was proposed by Faraday. James Clark Maxwell proved this proposition of Faraday theoretically but could not show how to manipulate these Maxwell equations. Maxwell equations describe Electricity and Magnetism as something which is linked and moves in waves. His work was way beyond his time and very few people could understand his work. In 1887, Heinrich Hertz got an understanding of Maxwell equations and proved it experimentally.
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| James Clark Maxwell Image Source:/www.kettlesyard.co.uk |
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| Heinrich Hertz Image Source: wellcomeimages.org via wikimedia.org |
Oliver Lodge discovered Electromagnetic Waves by accident while experimenting on lightning. By mistake, he had created EMW by flowing AC in copper conductors, but before presenting his discovery in front of scientific community he went on a holiday and in the meanwhile, Hertz presented his work in which he had accurately explained the existence of EMW and could experimentally prove Maxwell’s equations. However, Hertz could not detect Maxwell’s waves in air. Oliver Lodge had missed his chance for earning the credit of discovering EMW. In 1894, Hertz died suddenly but his work on Hertzian Waves was a substance of research for many scientists. Also, Lodge continued his work and presented a lecture at Oxford on a technology to detect EMW-The Bell ringing Experiment. Unaware that this technology would give rise to a new form of communication – Wireless Telegraph.
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| Wireless Telegraph Tranmitter Image Source:/etc.usf.edu |
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| Oliver Lodge Image Source:wikimedia.org |
Guglielmo Marconi after reading work of Hertz and Oliver at the age of 22 came to London to market his own made telegraph. He showed his work to the British Post Office Engineer in chief, William Preece. Marconi, a clever budding business with a lot of charm used post office’s resources to fund his own research in the pretext of helping the post office in the field of communication. He applied for British Patent for this designed Wireless Telegraph and was planning to set up his own company. His patent came out to be revolutionary and he published his work which was originally worked by Lodge and Hertz. In 1909, Marconi was awarded Nobel Prize for Wireless Communication.
Unlike Marconi, there was another scientist whose work on detection of Radio Waves. His name was Jagadish Chandra Bose, a lecturer in Presidency College, Calcutta was the first Indian to present his work in the 66th meeting of British Association in Liverpool in September 1896. He improved Lodge’s experiment and the outcome device was sensational. His developed device could be used on ships and in Naval Network but born with Indian values and Ethics, he was shocked to see the greed for money and fame other scientists had that time in London. Despite his numerous notable work, he made only one patent on his name that is the discovery of the power of Crystals in the detection of Radio Waves. His work proposed to use a different type of material, mainly composed of crystal which can detect EMW very easily. This was the beginning of the discovery of a new type of material in nature-The Semiconductor. But, at the time, no one knew why crystals worked that way.
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| Jagadish Chandra Bose Image Courtesy by Bose Institute, Calcutta via www.britannica.com |
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| Guglielmo Marconi Image by MC via .findagrave.com |
The answer of how electricity flowed through different materials was answered in the 1850s when a German glassblower Heinrich Geissler made special glass lamps called Geissler Lamps in which when the air is pumped on intrinsic glass tubes beautiful patterns were formed. Inspired by these tubes and theory working principle, a British Scientist, William Hooke created equipment which leads to the creation of Cathode Rays. Cathode rays were used in TV sets for a long period of time. They were called so because electrons are carriers of electricity. Later on, a three-terminal device called Valves were used in manufacturing which has replaced Bose Crystals in Radio sets everywhere. In the 20th century, after the understanding of the atom and its structure by various scientists. A major contribution to this field was Ernest Rutherford and his Gold Foil Scattering Experiment. Answers to questions like why lightning is blue in color and why different gas have different colors were answered and al this lead to the Invention of a new type of material –The Semiconductors. How semiconductors evolved and how they became an integral part of almost every electric and electronic machines we use today…To be continued in the next section.
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