Sir J. C. Bose

 

• In 1895, Sir J. C. Bose gave his first public demonstration of electromagnetic waves, using them to ring a bell remotely and to explode some gunpowder. 

 He sent an electromagnetic      wave across 75 feet passing through walls and body of the Chairman, Lieutenant Governor of Bengal.

• Sir J. C. Bose holds the      first patent worldwide to invent a solid-state diode detector to detect EM      waves. The detector was built using a galena crystal. Have a look at Bose's      patent.
• In the year 1998, nearly      100 years after Guglielmo Marconi's first wireless communication, a group      of scientists of the IEEE reported that -"the origin and first major      use of the solid state diode detector devices led to the discovery that      the first transatlantic wireless signal in Marconi's world famous      experiment was received by Marconi using the iron-mercury-iron coherer      with a telephone detector invented by Sir J.C.Bose in 1898".

 
Achievements of Sir J. C. Bose in the field of Botany

• His major contribution in the field of biophysics was the experimentation that proved both animals and plants share much in common. He demonstratedthat plants are also sensitive to heat, cold, light, noise and various other external stimuli.
• He also invented the crescograph(a device for measuring growth in plants) which could record and observe the minute responses because of external stimulants. It was capable of magnifying the motion of plant tissues to about 10,000 times of their actual size, which found many similarities between plants and other living organisms.

  A crater on the moon has been named in his honour.
 
P.S: Though this page would probably have a variety of audience, I believe that every electronics/electrical engineer graduating in India should know about the distinguished contribution of Sir J. C. Bose to the field of communication.