on of Electric
Waves on different kinds of matter, Dr. Bose invented a new type of
self-recovering electric receiver, "so perfect in its action that the
Electrician suggested its use in ships and in electro-magnetic
light-houses for the communication and transmission of danger-signals at
sea through space. This was, in 1895, several years in advance of the
present wireless system." Practical application of the results of Dr.
Bose's investigations appeared so important that the Governments of
Great Britain and the United States of America granted him patents for
his invention of a certain crystal receiver which proved to be the most
sensitive detector of the wireless signal. Dr. Bose, however, has made
no secret at any time as to the construction of his apparatus. He has
never utilised the patents granted to him for personal gain. His
inventions are "open to all the world to adopt for practical and
money-making purposes." "The spirit of our national culture" observes
Sir J. C. Bose "demands that we should for ever be free from the
desecration of utilising knowledge for personal gain."[12]

HIS RESEARCHES TAKE A NEW TURN

This inquiry which Dr. J. C. Bose started for the purpose of
ascertaining 'coherer action'--why the "receiver" had to be tapped in
order to respond again to electric waves--took him unconsciously to the
border region of physics and physiology and gave an altogether new turn
to his researches. "He found that the uncertainty of the early type of
his receiver was brought on by 'fatigue' and that the curve of fatigue
of his instrument closely resembled the fatigue curve of animal
muscle."[13] He did not stop there but pushed on his investigations and
found "that the 'tiredness' of his instrument was removed by suitable
stimulants and that application of certain poisons, on the other hand,
permanently abolished its sensitiveness." He was amazed at this
discovery--this parallelism in the behaviour of the 'receiver' to the
living muscle. This led him to a systematic study of all matter, Organic
and Inorganic, Living and Non-Living.

RESPONSE IN LIVING AND NON-LIVING

He began an examination of inorganic matter in the same way as a
biologist examines a muscle or a nerve. He subjected metals to various
kinds of stimulus--mechanical, thermal, chemical, and electrical. He
found that all sorts of stimulus produce an excitatory change in them.
And this excitation sometimes expresses itself in a visible change