68 LIFE AND WORK OF SIR JAGADIS C. BOSE 



Among the memorialists were Lord Lister, then President 

 of the Royal Society, Lord Kelvin, Professor Clifton, Pro- 

 fessor Fitzgerald, Dr. Gladstone, Professor Poynting, Sir 

 William Ramsay, Sir Gabriel Stokes, Professor Silvanus 

 Thompson, Sir William Riicker, and others. 



Impressed by all this, the Secretary of State sent a 

 dispatch (May 1897) to the Government of India enclosing 

 the memorial, and supporting it ' being of opinion that 

 the question of establishing an institution of the kind 

 mentioned is deserving of consideration by Your Excellency 

 in Council/ 



Lord Elgin, then Viceroy, told Bose that the Government 

 was interested in his project, and would communicate with 

 the Government of Bengal. This came filtering through 

 departmental channels, with the appended note that 

 though the scheme was important, yet it might be 

 postponed to a future date. Bose understood what this 

 really meant. He had succeeded in making the India 

 Office and the Government recognise the claims of science ; 

 but he also realised that the Government working machinery 

 could be effectively delayed by departmental cogwheels. 

 His friends in England were anxious to hasten matters at 

 headquarters, if he would let them know what was causing 

 delay. But that would have meant dropping his work 

 of research for an indefinite period ; so he made up his 

 mind to face the old difficulties as best he could, and 

 be independent of facilities that the Government might 

 offer, but by which there seemed little chance of his 

 benefiting. It is worthy of remark that the cogwheels 

 suddenly became mobile when Bose had neared the period 

 of retirement from Government service. Then the scheme 

 for which he had striven for many years resulted in the 

 recent foundation (1914) of a fully equipped Physical 

 Laboratory. Though this came too late to be of much 

 advantage for himself, he had the consolation that he 

 had been able to leave the Presidency College better than 

 he found it. Pupils whom he had trained were now in 



