| Great Scientists |
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| Biographies of Great Indians & Hindus |
Dr.C.V.RAMAN |
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| Delight
in Color and Light Raman collected rocks and precious stones. His invaluable collection included hundreds of objects such as sand that melted due to lightning, rock indicating the lava flow during a volcano and diamonds, rubies and sapphires. Many fluorescent minerals (that is,minerals having the property of receiving short invisible rays and sending out long visible rays) were kept in a dark room. There he could create a small twinkling world by switching on the ultra-violet light. Thin layers of some crystals were prepared for study. No color was seen when they were viewed perpendicularly. But the viewer had only to change the angle – and blue, green and yellow colors delighted the eye. After a deep study of diamonds Raman explained many of their characteristics. Once in Paris he went shopping for diamonds and crystals. There two beautiful butterflies with blue wings in a shop window attracted him. He bought them and later collected thousands of specimens. Raman loved flowers for their colors. He grew many flower plants. He used to visit flower exhibitions to examine flowers. Raman used to announce his newscientific discoveries at the annual sessions of the Academy. At the Madras session (1967) he discussed the influence of the earth’s rotation on its gaseous envelope. Next year he put forward his theory of the physiology of vision. Many countries and institutions continued to honor him. The membership of the American Optical Society (1941), the National Professorship of India (1948), the Franklin Medal of the Franklin Institute (1951), the International Lenin Prize (1957), the Membership of the Pontifical Academy of Science (1961) -these were some of the honors conferred on him. The greatest honor the Government of India confers on an Indian is the award of 'Bharat Ratna'. Raman became a 'Bharat Ratna' in 1954. |
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