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| Name |
Prof Kanti Bhusan Sen |
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| Address |
Silchar, headquarter of Cachar district of Assam |
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| District |
Cachar district |
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| State |
Assam. |
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| Category |
Profile |
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| Title |
Kanti Bhusan Sen – A Doyen Among Innovators |
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| Abstract |
During ‘Shodhyatra’ in Kashmir, Honey Bee team came across a saying written on a school wall - “God brings you to the earth; teacher takes you to the sky.” Prof Kanti Bhusan Sen was said to be such a teacher in Assam. This profile is based on the contribution by Surajit Sen, Lecturer, Gurucharan College, Silchar. (sssen55@yahoo.com) |
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| Details |
Prof Kanti Bhusan Sen, a veteran innovator of Assam triumphed over the most unfavorable circumstances. He encouraged the study of science and kindled spirit of innovative research in the remote and often strife-torn part of India, Silchar, headquarter of Cachar district of Assam. It is a town of tea gardens and industry.
Born on September 10, 1924, at Silchar to middle class parents, Shri Kamini Kanta Sen and Smt Suhasini Sen, he received his early education from Sarat Kalimohon Practicing School, Silchar and matriculation from Narsingh High School, Silchar in 1941. He completed B Sc from Bangabashi College, Kolkata in 1945.
In deference to his parents' wish, he left his lucrative job in Kolkata and joined the post of Science teacher in a school at Borkhola village about 15 kilometers from Silchar. Here he took an initiative to establish a Science laboratory. After his brief stint at that School, and then Cachar High School at Silchar, he joined the Physics Department of Guru Charan College, in 1950 and worked there until his retirement in 1984. The first ever Science Course in this city was started at Guru Charan College in the year 1949, but without proper laboratory equipments. Prof K B Sen joined the college and taught Applied Physics and Applied Electronics with the help of modest infrastructure.
A Science Aficionado
He spent a lot of his hard-earned money in purchasing expensive foreign books and journals and in setting up a small laboratory at his home where his innumerable scientific models
were developed. At the age of 33, he received attention of the people outside the Northeast for a model popularly known as ‘Sen’s Slave
Box’ (1956).
Taking Science from Pedagogy to Common Man
To popularize science Prof Sen always tried to design models for the public display of scientific concepts. He would always emphasize that his models were only designed out of his curiosity and to let the people know about the versatile use of the robotics and wireless technology. His exhibitions were popular time-outs for the local people.
Some of his popular innovative models were:
1) Slave Box:- a robotic device, 2) Steam Car (1955) - non-electrical model in which kerosene was used as fuel, 3) Bazooka (1958) - pistol which explodes pieces of flowers, 4) Robot (1959), 5) Wireless transmitter (1962) - predating the concept of community radio station by at least four decades, 6) Very High Frequency (VHF) Oscillator (1967) - it can become luminous without any connection, 7) Magic Prism (1968) - displays two different photographs through the same viewing window for different tilted positions, 8) Hat Walkie-talkie (1970) and 9) Null-point Finder (1972) - measures null point with high accuracy.
His creativity can also be gauged through some more models like Solar Battery, Transistor based radios for the kids, Thank-you box, Electronic Siren that was used in the
Bangla Desh War, an Automatic Tea maker and Speak-o-phone.
A Philanthropic Physicist
Science was never a minting vocation for Prof Sen. He extended his activities in the social sphere also, working untiringly for the civil rights and healthy civic life, also training unemployed youth of Silchar.
He was posthumously nominated as one of the distinguished recipients of the honor of the Physics Academy of North-East (PANE) for the year 2004. Prof Sen’s last and hallmark creation was the designing of the electric-blower based ‘Fast
Burning Furnace’ (1989) (Druta Dahan Chulli, as popularly known) for the municipal cremation ground of Silchar. It has saved energy and made the last departure perhaps more peaceful! |
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 19(3):16, 2008 |
