FURTHER PHYSICAL RESEARCH 63 



On the publication of Bose's papers on Electric Waves, 

 The Electrician, in its review (December 1895), drew attention 

 to the practicability of devising 



a practicable system of electro-magnetic ' light '-houses, the 

 receiver on board ship being some electric equivalent of the human 

 eye. The evolution of a suitable generating apparatus would, 

 we thought, present little difficulty ; that of a suitable receiver, 

 on the other hand, seemed likely to give considerable trouble. 

 In this connection we would draw attention to the substantial 

 and workmanlike form of ' Coherer ' devised by Professor Bose, 

 and described by him at the end of his paper ' On a new Electro- 

 Polariscope.' The sensibility and range of this type of ' Coherer ' 

 would appear to leave little to be desired, and it is certainly 

 more likely to withstand, with equanimity,' the thousand and 

 one shocks that the flesh is heir to at sea, than any of the forms 

 hitherto brought about. 



And subsequently, after Bose's Friday Evening Dis- 

 courses at the Royal Institution, The Electric Engineer 

 expressed ' surprise that no secret was at any time made 

 as to its construction, so that it has been open to all the 

 world to adopt it for practical and possibly money-making 

 purposes/ 



Bose has sometimes, and not unnaturally, been criticised 

 as unpractical for making no profit from his inventions. 

 But as to this he was determined from the first. His 

 child-memory had been impressed by the pure white flowers 

 offered in Indian worship ; and it came early to him 

 that whatever offerings his life could make should be 

 untainted by any considerations of personal advantage. 

 Moreover, he was painfully impressed by what seemed to 

 him symptoms of deterioration, even in scientific men, by the 

 temptation of gain ; and so at this time he made the resolve 

 to seek for no personal advantage from his inventions. 



In 1901 one of the great manufacturers of wireless 

 apparatus proposed to Bose, just before his Royal Institu- 

 tion lecture of that year, to sign a remunerative agreement 

 as to his new type of receiver ; but to the business man's 

 frank surprise, not to say disgust, he declined the offer. 



