Jagadish Chandra Bose, the Forgotten Father of Wireless

It was November 1895, and a scientist stood in front of colleagues in a Calcutta lecture hall with a curious contraption, on the verge of a radical discovery. Jagadish Chandra Bose sent an invisible wave through two walls, rang a bell, and set off a charge of gunpowder 75 feet away. What the audience witnessed was the world’s first public demonstration of wireless transmission with microwaves. The experiment demonstrated the key principle behind radio communication — that you could transmit a signal wirelessly via electromagnetic waves. It was also proof that an Indian scientist under British rule could conduct cutting-edge scientific research.

Despite being paid less than his British colleagues at Calcutta’s Presidency College and not having access to a proper laboratory, Bose built his own instruments and demonstrations anyway. Yet a different man, Guglielmo Marconi, would be remembered as the father of radio, even winning the Nobel. This is the overlooked story of Jagadish Chandra Bose.