He said that it was his rare good fortune to have been amply rewarded for the hardships and struggles that he had gone through by the generous and friendly feelings of his colleagues and the love and trust of his pupils. He would say a few words regarding his experience in the Presidency College for more than three decades, which he hoped would serve to bring all who loved the Presidency College—present and past pupils and their teachers—in closer bonds of union. He would speak to them what he had learnt after years of patient labour, that the impossible became possible by persistent and determined efforts and adherence to duty and entire selflessness. The greatest obstacle often arises out of foolish misunderstanding of each other's ideals, such as the differing points of view, first of the Indian teacher, then of his western colleague, and last but not least, the point of view of the Indian pupils themselves. In all these respects his experience had been wide and varied. He had both been an undergraduate and a graduate of the Calcutta University with vivid realization of an Indian student's aspirations; he had then become a student of conservative Cambridge and democratic London. And during his frequent visits to Europe and America he had become acquainted with the inner working of the chief universities of the world. Finally he had the unique privilege of being connected with the Presidency College for thirty-one years, from which no temptation could sever him. He had the deepest sense of the sacred vocation of the teacher. They may well be proud of a consecrated life—consecrated to what? To the guidance of young lives, to the making of men, to the shaping and determining of souls in the dawn of their existence, with their dreams yet to be realised.
Education in the West and in the East showed how different customs and ways might yet express a common ideal. In India the teacher was, like the head of a family, reverenced by his pupils so deeply as to show itself by touching the feet of their master. This in no servile act if we come to think of it; since it is the expression of the pupils' desire for his master's blessings, called down from heaven in an almost religious communion of souls. This consecration is renewed every day, calling forth patient foresight of the teacher. As the father shows no special favour, but lets his love and compassion go out to the weakest, so it is with the Indian teacher and his pupil. There is the relation something very human, something very ennobling. He would say it was essentially human rather than distinctively Eastern. For do we not find something very like it in Mediaeval Europe? There too before the coming of the modern era with its lack of leisure and its adherence to system and machinery, there was a bond as sacred between the master and his pupils. Luther used to salute his class every morning with lifted hat, "I bow to you, great men of the future, famous administrators yet to be, men of learning, men of character who will take on themselves the burden of the world." Such is the prophetic vision given to the greatest of teachers. The modern teacher from England will set before him an ideal not less exalted—regarding his pupils as his comrades, he as an Englishman will instill into them greater virility and a greater public spirit. This will be his special contribution to the forming of our Indian youths.
Turning to the Indian students he could say that it was his good fortune never to have had the harmonious relation between teacher and pupils in any way ruffled during his long connection with them for more than three decades. The real secret of success was in trying at times to see things from the student's point of view and to cultivate a sense of humour enabling him to enjoy the splendid self-assurance of youth with a feeling not unmixed with envy. In essential matters, however, one could not wish to meet a better type or one more quickly susceptible to finer appeals to right conduct and duty as Indian students. Their faults are rather of omission than of commission, since in his experience he formed that the moment they realised their teachers to be their friends, they responded instantly and did not flinch from any test, however severe, that could be laid on them.
—The Presidency College Magazine. Vol. II, pages 339-341.
On the 14th January 1916, Dr. J. C. Bose delivered a public lecture, on Light Visible and Invisible, at the third Indian Science Congress held at Lucknow, before a crowded audience which included the Lieutenant-Governor (Sir James Meston).
Dr. Bose, in course of his lecture, spoke of the imperfection of our senses. Our ear, for example, fails to respond to all sounds. There are many sounds to which we are deaf. This was because our ear was tuned to answer to the narrow range of eleven octaves of sound vibrations. He showed a remarkable experiment of an artificial ear which remained irresponsive to various sounds, but when a particular note, to which it was tuned, was sounded even at the distant end of the hall, this ear picked it up and responded violently. As there were sounds audible and inaudible, so there were lights visible and invisible. The imperfection of our eye as a detector of ether vibrations was, however, far more serious. The eye could detect ether vibrations lying within a single octave—between 400 to 800 billion vibrations per second. Comparatively slow vibrations of ether did not affect our eye and the disturbances they give rise to well-known as electric waves. The electric waves, predicted by Maxwell, were discovered by Hertz. These waves were about three metres long. They were about ten million times larger than the beams of visible light. Dr. Bose showed that the three short electric waves have the same property as a beam of light, exhibiting reflections, refraction, even total reflection, through a black crystal, double refraction, polarisation, and rotation of the plane of polarisation. The thinnest film of air was sufficient to produce total reflection of visible light with its extremely short wave lengths. But with the new electric waves which he produced, Dr. Bose showed that the critical thickness of air space determined by the refracting power of the prison and by the wave length of electric oscillations. Dr. Bose determined the index of refraction of electric waves for different materials, and eliminated a difficulty which presented itself in Maxwell's theory as to the relation between the index of refraction of light and the di-electric constant of insulators. He also measured the wave lengths of various oscillations. The order to produce short electric oscillations, to detect them and study their optical properties, he had to construct a large number of instruments. It was a hard task to produce very short electric waves which had enough energy to be detected, but Dr. Bose overcame this difficulty by constructing radiators or oscillators of his own type, which emitted the shortest waves with sufficient energy. As a receiver he used a sensitive metallic coherer, which in itself led to new and important discoveries. When electric waves fall on a loose contact between two pieces of metals, the resistance of the contact changes and a current passes through the contact indicating the existence of electrical oscillations. Dr. Bose discovered the surprising fact that with potassium metal the resistance of the contact increases under the action of electric waves and that this contact exhibits an automatic recovery. He found further that the change of the metallic contact resistance when acted upon by electric waves, is a function of the atomic weight. These phenomena led to a new theory of metallic coherers. Before these discoveries it was assumed that the particles of the two metallic pieces in contact are, as it were, fused together, so that the resistance decreases. But the increasing resistance appearing for some elements, led to the theory that the electric forces in the waves produced a peculiar molecular action or a re-arrangement of the molecules, which may either increase or decrease the contact resistance.
—Pioneer,—16-1-1916.
The foundation of the Hindu University was laid by Lord Hardinge on the 4th February 1916. "Many striking addresses were delivered on the occasion. Professor J.C. Bose in his masterly address went to the root of the matter and pointed in an inspiring manner what should be done to make the Hindu University worthy of its name. He deprecated a repetition of the Universities of the West." He said:—