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Contents March 2008Issue No.1 March, 2008

Editor-in-chiefEditor-in-chiefEditor-in-chiefEditor-in-chiefEditor-in-chiefNagendra Vijay

Managing EditorManaging EditorManaging EditorManaging EditorManaging EditorHarshal Pushkarna

ContributorsContributorsContributorsContributorsContributorsSushil Bhatia, Samarth Vyas,

B. M. Purohit,

Digamber Vyas, D. N. Kaushik

CoordinatorsCoordinatorsCoordinatorsCoordinatorsCoordinators

G. K. Parmar, Prof. T.S.D. Menon,

Usha Nath, Bharavi Yagnik

Art EditorArt EditorArt EditorArt EditorArt EditorHarshal Pushkarna

DesigningDesigningDesigningDesigningDesigningAmit Shah, Sunil Christian

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Safari March, 2008 3

2nd cover>>F>>F>>F>>F>>Fasasasasast ft ft ft ft factsactsactsactsactsDisappearing honeybees

35>>F>>F>>F>>F>>FactFinderactFinderactFinderactFinderactFinderQuestions and answers on G.K.

41>>Super>>Super>>Super>>Super>>SuperquizquizquizquizquizThis month: AcAcAcAcAccidencidencidencidencidental intal intal intal intal invvvvvenenenenentionstionstionstionstions

4th cover>>Al>>Al>>Al>>Al>>All aboutl aboutl aboutl aboutl aboutThis month: CCCCCurrurrurrurrurrency prinency prinency prinency prinency printingtingtingtingting

45>>Mindgame>>Mindgame>>Mindgame>>Mindgame>>MindgamesssssPuzzles and brain teasers

07>> Memory: Do birds andanimals have any?No other creature except human beings has been endowed

with the ability to think. However, in several living beings,

nature has compensated by granting extraordinary memory.

15>> An astronomer’s cricket puzzleby Prof. Jayant NarlikarThis unique cricket puzzle was created by renowned British

astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington. Even if it takes more

time in solving it, finding the answer is the real fun of it.

19>> The Maldives: Here today,gone tomorrowGlobal Warming, in one way or the other is badly affecting

many a nation, but the fate of the Maldives is more serious

than others. The very existence of this nation is in danger.

32>> A global language for theglobal village: EsperantoIn the age of internet and e-mail, English is on its way to

becoming the dominant global language. However, there is

another language, with 2 million speakers worldwide, that is

emerging as a universal second language slowly but surely.

The name of the language is Esperanto.

FEATURED ARTICLES EVERY MONTH

COVER STORY

24>> From liftoff tolanding: How doesspace shuttle do it?

Editorial March 2008

6 Safari March, 2008

Having picked up this premier issue of SAFARI, you have just stepped into

the world of knowledge. Or, more precisely, into your own future which is

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SAFARI is the liveliest, exciting and most original non-fiction magazine,

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Beginning with this premier issue, it will provide, month after month, a

varied collection of informative articles. Writing in a lucid and enjoyable style,

our esteemed team of contributors will explore such diverse subjects as

astronomy, defence technology, animal behaviour, environment, genetics,

historical events and war stories, to cite just a few. As you will notice when

you glance through this issue, it is SAFARI’s editorial practice to reinforce each

article with pictures and diagrams which enable the reader to obtain a

complete overview of a specific topic.

With the information explosion all around, the world of knowledge is

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NagendrNagendrNagendrNagendrNagendra Vijaa Vijaa Vijaa Vijaa VijayyyyyEditor-in-chief

Whyyoucannotaffordnot toreadSAFARI?

Here’swhy >>


Digamber Vyas

No other creature except human beings has been endowed with the ability to think. However, in several

living beings, nature has compensated by granting extraordinary memory

Memory: Do animals and

birds have any?

Answer this question by making an intelligent guess,because even the learned scientists have been doing justthat. How much is the storage capacity in terms ofmegabytes or gigabytes of a human being as comparedto that of a computer?

Maybe it’s not a good idea to talk in terms of bits andbytes since the computer processes given data in 0’s and1’s (i.e. the binary system)using electrical signals, whilethe human brain useschemical signals for creating,storing and retrieving thedata. It is not actuallypossible to make comparisonbetween a computer and ahuman brain--the formerbeing digital and the laterbiological.

However, considering theestimated pool of memoryretained in a human brain,Robert Burg, an Americanchemist, has approximatedthat a normal adult humanbrain is probably able to storenearly 1000 gigabytes.Almost 85,89,93,45,92,000bits of 0’s and 1’s! To put thatin perspective, it is like having 25 hard disks of acomputer, each with a storage capacity of 40 GB, in yourbrain. Astonishing as it may sound for a brain weighingjust 1.4 kg. or less, very many scientists believe that eventhis figure is a conservative estimate. The actual storage

capacity of the brain may be much more. They figure outthat every brain cell is capable of storing about 2 to 3bits. Therefore, the human brain must be capable ofstoring 3,000 GB of data! Even if their estimation issomewhat overdone, the amount of information the braincan stock up and put in storage appears to be stupendous.

Enough about the human brain. Our subject ofdiscussion here is different.The one that explores moreintriguing question: To whatextent can animals and birdscommit past experiences tomemory and recal l theappropriate data to plan theirfuture behaviour? The answerdepends on the species inquestion--and there are quitea few creatures that can,going by the standard ofanimal kingdom boast ofrobust memory. Wheneverthere is a reference to howmuch memory the animalsand birds have as comparedto the humans, the firstexample that comes to mindis that of the elephant. Therehave been many stories in

our culture that refer to the legendary memory of theelephants. And they are true to an extent. Scientificallyspeaking, among all the land animals, the elephant hasthe largest brain. The African elephants could have a brainweighing 6.5 kg, while that of the Asian elephants could


Animal memory

weigh 5.5 kg. (Amazingly, the BlueWhale, which is the largest livingthing on earth and many timeslarger than the elephant, has abrain weighing only 2 kg.)Moreover, the temporal lobes ofthe brain, where the long-term memoryresides, are verywell developed inthe elephant brain. This iswhat helps the elephantremember incidents, placesand people not just formonths, but for years--afaculty responsible for thepopular belief that elephantsnever forget and nor do theyforgive those who have beenunjust to them in past.

One interesting example thatimmediately comes to mind isthat of ‘ Jumbo’, an Africanelephant whose enormous sizemade him popular worldwide in19th century. Jumbo was housed with two otherfemale African elephants in Dresden city zoo,Germany. On one occasion, Jumbo had an intestinalinfection and he stopped eating. When all attempts atfeeding him failed, the zoo authorities called on theservices of an expert veterinarian from Munich. Jumbo,however, would not swallow medicine just as he refusedto eat food. The doctor, a veteran of many such cases,observed that sometimes Jumbo would snatch away thefood that one of his female companions was eating andput it in his own mouth. Probably, because he was hungryand could not bear to watch the female elephants gorgingthemselves. The doctor had an idea. He hid the bittermedicine in a morsel of food and offered it to one of thefemale elephants. As expected, Jumbo snatched the food

from the female elephant and put it in hisown mouth. But soon he realised that he

had been fooled into taking themedicine. Wild with anger, he picked upa stone in his trunk and tried to hit thedoctor with it. Fortunately, it missed the

target but Jumbo’s angry outburstdid not subside for another halfan hour.

For years after thisincident, the doctor had nooccasion to visit the Dresdenzoo. It was almost Seven yearslater, that one day he took his

two grandsons to visit the zoo.When they reached Jumbo’s

show pen, there were about 150other people crowding around.

But Jumbo recognized him,remembered the way he had been

fooled by him and rushed towards thedoctor to avenge the insult.

Elephants have been demonstratingsuch phenomenal memory to a fewunfortunate villagers in Uganda for thepast 15 years or so. In Uganda, ivory

poachers butcher wild African elephants for theirmagnificent tusks, which fetch great sums of money inthe black markets. Ivory trading is illegal today, butclandestine trading goes on. When a few of the elephantsin the herd fall to the bullets of the poachers, those ofthe herd who escape never forget the tragic loss of theircompanions. They justify the popular saying ‘elephantsnever forget and cannot forgive’ with a vengeance. Thesesurvivors-turned-marauders attack villages at night toavenge their companions’ brutal slayings. They storm thetargeted village, destroying and trampling to the groundeverything in their way, and killing any humans that areunfortunate enough to cross their path. Naturalists andresearchers who study elephant behaviour say that theangry elephants are not looking for food when theyattack. Even if they spot food, they ignore it.

The only logical explanation for this extraordinarybehaviour is that, the elephants are out to punish thehumans for persecuting them. A simple case of tit fortat. It can, therefore, be inferred that the elephant’s brainhas three distinct abilities: (1) to map and record eventsand experiences; (2) to remember; and (3) to recall suchevents and experiences.

While there have been several instances that givecredence to the incredible memory of the elephants,there are several other animals and birds that have

The volume of an African elephant’s brian measures nearly 3,800 sq. cm.

An adult

African

elephant

weighs nearly

5,500 kg and

has a brain

four times the

size of human

brain


Animal memory

demonstrated extra-ordinary memory buthave remainedunnoticed. As recentlyas a quarter centuryago, naturalists wereunable to state with anyconviction whethercreatures other than thehumans had anycapacity to retain andrecall memory. The firstinteresting research inthis direction wasundertaken in 1935 bythe eminent Austrianlife scientist , KonradLorenz . His researchestablished that birdbabies were born with amind that was like aclean slate. And that,the first object it sees,is retained in itsmemory for a long time.More often than not, theobject is its mother.Konrad Lorenz usedswans as his researchsubjects. Hisobservations went on toprove the cygnethatching out of the eggis programmed toaccept as its mother thefirst moving object itsees. The cygnet willthen fol low the

‘mother’ unfailingly throughout its infancy. This first‘impression’ is called imprinting. To prove his point,Lorenz stood in wait near the clutch of eggs about tohatch so that he would be the first object that the cygnetswould see when they cracked out of their eggs. He wasthus imprinted on the babies’ memory as their motherand they followed him around faithfully wherever hewent. To further test his theory, Lorenz placed a woodenswan in front of the hatchlings. He hung the woodeneffigy by a thread and swung it in front of the cygnets.Lo and behold! The decoy swan was promptly imprintedon the memory of the hatchlings as their mother. Overthe years, Lorenz continued the experiments in the samefashion and found that while imprinting is an extremely

rapid form of learning ordinarily confined to very brief‘critical period’, the image registered on the cygnets’brain was long lasting and was not erased easily.

Konrad Lorenz’s experiments were the first toscientifically establish the fact that animals and birdshave memory. The fact that imprinting occurs means thatthe first experience at the time of birth is storedsomewhere in the brain--a clear indication that memoryexists. When Lorenz’s experiments were published, theyreceived wide acclaim followed by an interestingquestion: Why has mother nature created a geneticallyprogrammed process called imprinting in some birds (andeven animals) and what evolutionary purpose does itserve? The logical answer would be that early infancy isa time of extreme vulnerability to such environmentalhazards as adverse weather, starvation and predators.Therefore, in the battle for survival, the babies wouldhave a better chance if they remained close to theirmother. Imprinting ensures that the babies are alwaysunder the protection and guidance of their mother,safeguarding them against such hazards. This memoryability is predominantly evident in species like swans

An Elephant never forgets: In Uganda, Elephants turn tables on humans

by destroying villages in retaliation


Animal memory

and ducks whose large brood consistsof not less than six hatchlings and, leftto themselves, all are easy prey to thepredators. It is believed that thepressure of predators as well as hunterspoaching the birds over severalhundred years has probably resultedinto this countervailing. Once thehatchlings grow into adults, the day-to-day experiences of survival in thewild slowly replace the imprinting as asurvival tool and then one day, theadult swan or duck leaves its mother,never to return. The replacement of theimprint with the behaviour modified bydaily experiences during adulthoodwould help it survive the vagaries ofthe wild. It raises its own family andso the cycle of survival continues,which in turn ensures the survival ofthe entire species.

The example can be cited as themore reinforcing evidence of memoryin the animal kingdom is that of theBlue Jay, a native American bird species. (In India, asimilar species is called the Indian Roller or Neelkanth inthe local parlance). The Blue Jay stocks its food in treehollows, under boulders or in the cracks in the rock walls.When food is available aplenty, it creates several caches,crammed with seeds and grains. And when food becomesscarce, the Jay feeds on such hoards one after the other.Nicola Clayton, a biologist who studied the Blue Jay formore than 6 years, observed during the course of herresearch that not all caches of the Blue Jay remain safe.Various creatures raid and deplete them. The Jaysometimes comes to know of the raid some 2-3 monthsafter the cache had been created. If it then starts to createa new stockpile from scratch, the task may take anything

between 1 to 2 months--not a goodidea when the place is known to theplunderers who might visit it again.Talking of memory, it is interesting tonote that a Jay typically has not lessthan 200-250 such hoards. Even so, itremembers with unfailing accuracywhich of his caches was raided andscrupulously remembers to avoidrestocking them. It finds a new andbetter place to set up the cache andstores its location map in the brain.

The hummingbird, on the otherhand, faces a different situation. As thefluttering and hovering quick dart ofthe avian world, the hummingbird isknown for its compact and tiny body,which requires constant input of nectar.Even while it is perched, this birdconsumes 16 cc of oxygen for everygram of its body weight. Its peanut sizestomach quickly burns up the nectar itsucks from the flowers turning it intomuch needed energy. When it flies in

the hovering mode, it flutters its wings 90 times a secondand its oxygen consumption goes up to 85 cc per gramof weight. A stomach full of nectar lasts a hummingbirdin a flight barely for 3 minutes. Therefore, it needs tounceasingly replenish its food intake. If the intervalbetween feeds increases, the energy outflow will begreater than the inflow and the bird would probably diein a matter of hours. So it is evident that the hummingbirdcannot afford to waste time trying to find nectar fromflowers it has already visited. It avoids such futile calls,thanks to its memory.

On one hand, this tiny bird keeps track of the flowersit has emptied of nectar, and on the other, it also mentallyrecords how long an interval needs to pass before it can

revisit the same flower for another fill ofnectar. So the tiny brain of the hummingbirdhas to grapple with two questions: One,according to different species, which flowerwill take how much time to replenish its storeof nectar? Two, which flower it had visitedhow long ago? So the time and energyequation needs to be right for thehummingbird to use its resources in aprofitable manner.

To demonstrate this abil ity of thehummingbird on a scientif ic basis,researchers at Britain’s Edinburgh Universityconducted an experiment in February 2006.

Proof of Imprinting: Swan babies, who saw Lorenz

on hatching, perceived him as their mother and

followed him accordingly

Blue Jay can store the

‘addresses’ of more than 200

caches of food in its memory!


Animal memory

On every visit to a flower,

the hummingbird does two

things: Feeding stomach

with nectar and brain

with data entry about

the flower

They arranged garlands of artificialflowers with a facility to replenish the false corollas withsugary solutions via tiny tubes. The flowers weredistinguished by different colours and the time gapsbetween refills of corollas with the sugar solution waspredetermined accordingly. The hummingbird, with abrain the size of a grain of wheat, was able to establishthe timetable of the refilling in the various categories offlowers. It adapted its visits so as to find only the fullyreloaded flower. The experiment not only proved the factthat the hummingbird could remember which flowerwould be restocked when, but also that it was able tokeep track of the duration of time between each visit tothe flower. The researchers, therefore, concluded that thehummingbird was blessed with an ‘Episodic’ memory,i.e. the memory that keeps track of both, time and events.The scientific community wasstunned to find this kind ofmemory in the hummingbird,which was believed to be thedomain of the humans. Thecapacity of the wheat grain-sizedbrain indeed seemsextraordinary.

The honeybee, with its abilityto map landmarks in its searchfor food, is another wonder ofevolutionary adaptation ofmemory to aid survival. Let usexplore just how unusual lydeveloped is the memory of thistiny creature, with a brainweighing just 0.00007 grams.

When the end of August approaches andthe nip of winter tinges the air, the natural

supply of flowers in North America dwindlesand the bees have a tough time finding adequate

food. Bearing this situation in mind, the eminententomologist, James Gold conducted an interesting

experiment to access the abilities of the honeybee’sbrain. He prepared a sugar-rich solution in lieu of nectar.

He placed the vessel filled with this syrupy solutionnear a honeycomb. Soon the honeybees started

using the solution to make honey. Thisbecame their everyday routine as during the

season there were not enough flowers fromwhere they could get their daily ration of nectar. Somedays later, James Gold started shifting the vesselcontaining sugar solution farther and farther from thehoneycomb to the east. So much so that eventually, thedistance between the honeycomb and the vessel ofsugary solution was now 150 metres--approximately 500feet. As Gold had expected, despite the distance, thehoneybees encountered no difficulty in locating thevessel as it had only gradually been shifted a little at atime and had remained in sight of the honeybees at alltimes. Yet this was only the beginning of the experiment.A major surprise was in offing.

A few days later, James Gold captured about 75honeybees in an opaque jar. He placed this jar 150 metresaway so that the honeycomb, the sugar solution and theopaque jar now formed a triangle (see diagram). Thevessel containing the solution was not visible from thesite where the opaqued jar was placed, while thehoneycomb was perfectly visible. The stage was now setdifferently. It was as if the geographical features on thebees’ path had been drastically changed. It remained tosee what path the bees would take in this altered

scenario. Gold wonderedwhether the swarm of beeswould make for the clearlyvisible honeycomb and fromthere, as per their daily routine,go due east towards the sugarsolution. But in the event thememory-backed instinct orintelligence of the bees does notextend that far, then as per theireveryday routine, the beeswould fly to the east in searchof the syrupy solution. Which, ofcourse, they would not be ableto locate. (see diagram 2 for thetwo probable paths mentioned.)To Gold’s surprise, the bees did

11111

22222


Animal memory

not choose either of the twoprobable paths to the sugarsolution. This is what happenedinstead: after leaving the opaquejar, the bees mil led around,directionless, over the jar for afew seconds. Then theyunerringly f lew off in thedirection of the sugary food in astraight line at an angle of 45degrees. The bees found thesugar solution at the first attemptwithout making any diversionswhatsoever. James Gold was trulyamazed at this discovery.

How did the bees, who werein an opaque jar and stationaryat one place, find the correctdirection of the sugar solutionwhich was no longer at 180degrees to them, but at an angleof 45 degrees? The logical answerwould be that the bees hadmapped the geophysical featuresof the landscape they flew overeveryday and when releasedfrom the opaque jar, had referredto the geophysical clues stored intheir memory to re-orientatethemselves, calculated the newdirection and found the correctpath to the vessel of sweet syrup.All in a matter of a few seconds.In other words, the beesdisplayed a distinct ‘spatialmemory’. In human terms, itrefers to the relationship of aperson to the space around himi.e. the ability to gauge distanceand direction to another object inthis space. The operative word ismemory, because it is only when one is able to rememberand recall the spatial location of each landmark that thehoming pigeonlike navigation is possible in a differentlyoriented scene.

Miraculous as the memory of the honeybees is, theability of the salmon, a kind of fish, is even moreastonishing. The basic difference between the two is thatwhile the honeybee depends on its power to create andlater refer to the geophysical visual map to find its way,the salmon uses its sense of smell to achieve the samepurpose. The sense of smell records the salmon’s

environment on birth and theinformation stays with it forlife. This is what makes itunique among al l f ishes.Another thing that makes itdifferent from the ordinary fishis that it can survive in bothfresh as well as saltwater. Thesalmon, which grows tobetween 50 and 75 cm. long,lays its eggs in the upperreaches of the rivers. It is foundmainly in the rivers of America,Canada, Russia, Greenland,Norway, Scotland and a fewEuropean countries. It laysapproximately 10,000 eggs inthe muddy bottom of the river,scrupulously covering themwith sand. It then leaves forthe ocean and does not waitto guard eggs nor for the eggsto hatch.

After incubating at thebottom of the river for aboutfour months, the eggs spawn.The fries (baby fish) spend thefirst three to four yearsswimming around the upperreaches of the river. Thereafter,these salmons too startmaking for the ocean. A daycomes when suddenly millionsof salmons of all rivers set offon the migration to the ocean.The journey from the mouth ofthe river to the river deltawhere the river meets theocean and beyond is longjourney indeed. The salmon-rich Yukon River in the

northern state of Alaska, for example, is 3,200 km. long—almost the same distance as Kashmir to Kanyakumari.

On reaching the ocean, the salmon go about theordinary business of living. Barring those who fall victimsto predators, the lives of other remain more or lessuneventful until they reach the age of about seven years.Then, again one day, another instinctive command makesall the salmons start their return journey up the river.They head upstream with a single purpose in mind—tolay eggs at the upper stretches of the same river theyhad traversed to reach the ocean and at the very spot

Human beings are endowed with sharper memorythan any other living beings on earth. Some feats ofmemory power are extraordinary as to be unbeliev-able. For example, a young monk named BhandantaVicitsara had recited Buddhist scriptures aggregating16,000 pages verbatim, entirely from memory, atYangoon--the capital of Myanmar in 1974.

The extent of memory from which a person can jotdown a telephone number after reading it in direc-tory is known as ‘working memory’, whereas theability to recall it after some months is known as ‘ei-detic memory’—which is found amongst very few.One of such rare persons is Gon Yangling of Harbin inChina who has memorised telephone numbers of15,000 residents of that town.

A demonstration of super memory power was givenby a British youth named Dominic O’Brian when shoot-ing for the famous program ‘Guinness World ofRecords’ on May 29, 1992. A pack of 52 playing cardswas shuffled. After observing the sequence of cardsfor a mere 55.62 seconds O’Brian accurately repro-duced the entire sequence correctly.

Another example of photographic memory: In acompetition held on November 6, 1999 a figure of 27

digits was displayed for only 3 seconds before a Ger-man named Gert Mittring. However, Mittring (seephotograph above) memorised all these digits andrecited them accurately.

FOR YOUR FACT FILE


Animal memory

where they were born. The degree of precision thatdifferent oceanic salmons exhibit in finding their ownrivers is truly remarkable. The salmons swim up the riveragainst the current, climbing waterfalls and cataracts withthe singular aim of reaching their ancestral spawninggrounds. So if it’s Alaska’s Yukon river, the salmons nativeto that river make another journey of 3,200 km.!

How do the salmon know which river they were bornin? Researchers now have the answer: They believe thatit is the special sense of smell that the salmon use tocommit to memory, remember and identifythe river of its origin. The aquatic vegetation,the waterweeds, decaying flora and fauna,minerals leaching from the rocks that line theriversides and the beds impart a distinctiveodour or aroma to the waters of each river.Although the smell may be extremely faint,the newborn salmons are able to ‘record’ it intheir memory for recollection later on. Thereturning salmons seek the river mouths atthe deltas that merge into the ocean, goingfrom mouth to mouth til l their powerfulolfactory nerves sense the odour or aroma thatmatches the memory stored. This is how theyfind the river of their origin. But why does thesalmon insist on returning to the place it wasborn? No one has been able to answer thisquestion yet. But surely, it would be difficultto find a similar example of long-term memoryin the animal world.

Not so! The nutcracker, a crow-sized birdabout 32 cm. long and inhabitant of the RockyMountains in America may be able to give stiffcompetition to the amazing feat of the salmon.This bird, as its name suggests, is famous forits ability to crack-open hard nuts like the hazelnuts to get at the delicious and nutritiouskernels inside. For some months during theyear, it is difficult to find the nuts and berriesthat the nutcracker survives on. So late inautumn flocks of these birds harvest pine seeds and hazelnuts and carry them to the communal cache close to theirbreeding area for use in the months when food is scarce.The nuts are buried in the ground. The group ofnutcrackers deposit about 3-4 pieces of nuts or berriesin one store. (Naturalists have recorded one such groupof nutcrackers creating a mind boggling 33,000 hiddenstores in 5000 places on its territory). Even though thereare no markings to identify the hidden provisions of nuts,the nutcrackers locate their hoards in deep snow andearth, even after months have passed, with an accuracyof over 90%.

As if this in itself was not convincing enough, tworesearchers, Alan Camille and Julie James created a fewpractical experiments to establish how the nutcrackersmanaged such precision. The year was 1997 and for thefirst time there was serious and dedicated research onmapping the method by which these birds found such avast number of their food stores with an astonishinglyhigh strike-rate. On a flat piece of land, the researcherspegged four pieces of 40 cm. long PVC pipes, all beingdifferent in colour. They were placed in the four major

directions i.e. north, south and east, west. The pipes weresupposed to serve as the geophysical markers for thenutcrackers. Next Alen Camille and Julie James buried afew nuts randomly across the field. When a hungrynutcracker was released, it quickly and accurately foundone hidden stockpile.

The researchers were unable to understand why thebird chose the particular place to search for nuts. Theychanged the positions of the PVC pipes and triedexperiment again. Once again the nutcracker quicklyfound the buried treasure--the khana khazana, if you like.

The salmon swimming upstream against the flow on the Yukon river


Animal memory

After a few days of studied observations, it was realisedthat the nutcracker’s first search always led it to a placethat formed the intersection of the imaginary lines drawnfrom the four PVC pipes, north to south and east to west.To test this hypothesis, the researchers once againrearranged the pipes and placed a huge pile of nuts infront of the nutcracker. The bird promptly buried a fewnuts at the exact intersection of the pipes.

The question of how the birds of this species bury andfind their troves of nuts has now been answered by thisexperiment. However, how they choose their geophysicalmarkers from among the numerous trees, shrubs andboulders that populate their territory is still far from clear.All that can be said with a degree of certainty is this: Thepart of the brain that stores long-term memory iscal led the hippocampus. So this section of

the nutcracker’s brain must behighly developed. Evidently, it

is also capable of processingmany bytes of memory. For itis an indispensable survivaltool for the nutcracker, whowould definitely perish were itnot for its ability to hide andretrieve its contingency foodon the barren, snow-ladenslopes of the Rockies in theharsh North American winters.

The same goes for thechimpanzee, though in adifferent environment theywield their memory power toward off a different threat oftheir survival. These apesinhabit African forests wherethere are no seasonal highsand lows in food supply.However, the dense vegetation

on harbours innumerable disease-causing bacteria,microbes and other nasty parasites. Getting infected isalmost a daily affair. While the immunological system ofthese apes is capable of protecting them against mostdiseases, they do sometimes suffer a bout of illness.Depending on the type of ailment, they need to eatleaves or stalks of a particular medicinal plant, whichcould restore them to health. Unbelievable as it mayseem, an adult chimpanzee knows the curative propertiesof about 200 different plants. It is as if the entirepharmacopoeia is stored in the ape’s memory vault. Onlyan experienced Vaidya practicing Ayurved can perhapsbetter a chimpanzee’s feat.

In the animal kingdom, there are numerous exampleswhich provide a collective proof of the hypothesis thatmemory is indeed a precious survival tool for many

animals and birds. Some examples may seemtrivial, like that of the mud wasp, which

mentally maps the terrain on it ,’sforaging trip and uses that map to

stay on course during the returnjourney.

If that sounds to be no big deal,when did you last memorise theindicative marks and clues on theroad you were passing through inan unfamiliar city and recalledthem on the way back like theproverbial homing cat?

A bird of high mountain regions, the

nutcracker is specialised for feeding on

large pine seeds

Chimpanzees use medicinal plants to

cure themselves of their ailments


An astronomer’s

cricket puzzleThis unique cricket puzzle was created by renowned British astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington. Even if it

takes more time in solving it, finding the answer is the real fun of it.

Prof. Jayant V. Narlikar

Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington

The famous Cambridge astronomer, SirArthur Eddington, was also a cricketenthusiast. The following puzzle set byhim for Caliban’s column in The NewStatesman combines the subtleties of thegame with the brilliance of deductivelogic. The problem describes a score-sheetextract (given on page No. 16) of a cricketmatch between two hypotheticalcounties, Eastershire and Westershire.

Further information : The batsman scored entirely in

singles and fours. There were no catches, no-balls or

run outs. Speedwell and Tosswell each had

only one spell of bowling. Pitchwell bowled the first over, Mr.

Atkins facing the opening ball.

Speedwell was the other openingbowler.

Given only this much information it ispossible to deduce the answers to thefollowing questions :

(1) Which bowler took which wickets?(2) Who remained not out?(3) What was the score at the fall of

each wicket? Further, it is possible toconstruct a table giving the runs scoredand the wickets taken in each over?

It seems incredible that so much couldbe deduced from so little. Partly this isdue to the somewhat artificial nature ofthe conditions given under ‘FurtherInformation’. Nevertheless the logicalsimplicity of the answer is mostimpressive. I give the solution below.(Those who are interested in cricket and


KARL DRAIS

Astronomer’s cricket puzzle

in mathematical puzzles and who wantto arrive at the solution independentlymay skip the steps of reasoning describedhere.)

Who bowled which overs?There were 26 overs in all, the last

(bowled by Pitchwell) being incomplete.We are also told that Pitchwell bowledthe first over. This is possible only if hechanged ends. And he cannot havechanged ends more than once since theother two bowlers had uninterruptedspells. Keeping in mind that Speedwellopened from the other end, we get thefollowing distribution of overs among thethree bowlers :

Who scored off Tosswell?Tosswell’s bowling analysis reads :7—5—31—1.Thus, 31 runs were scored in only 2

overs, that is, in 12 balls at the most.Suppose there are X fours and Y singlesin the 31. Then,

These relations have a unique solution:X = 7, Y = 3. (This can be easily verifiedby trial and error !)

In a typical over a bowler may bowl toup to two batsmen if no wicket falls inthe over. If one wicket fal ls a newbatsman may be involved (unless thewicket falls in the last ball of the over).We are told that Tosswell took one wicket.If this wicket fell in one of the two non-maidens, then he must have bowled toat the most five batsmen, two in the overwith no wicket and three in the over withone wicket. So the seven fours in thesetwo overs were scored by at the most fivebatsmen. But notice that only twobatsmen scored eight or more (Bodkins,8 and Perkins, 11). So, five batsmen wereinvolved in these two overs, Bodkins andPerkins each scoring two fours and threeothers scoring one four each.

If fewer than five batsmen had beeninvolved we would have arrived at theimpossible conclusion that at least threebatsmen scored eight or more.

The first four wickets fallSince Bodkins scored all his runs in

Tosswell’s over, he scored nothing in thefirst 12 overs : Tosswell came on the sceneonly in the 13th over, as seen earlier. So,all the runs until the 13th over were scoredby batsmen other than Bodkins.

Thus when the first wicket fell (toPitchwell), the score was six, this beingthe total number of runs scored by Atkins.The next wicket fell when Dawkins wasout, the total being 12. The third wicketfel l when Hawkins was bowled byPitchwell at the total score of 18.

We can continue arguing like this untilthe 13th over. Thus provided we are surethat the next man out, Jenkins, wentbefore the 13th over, we can state the fall


KARL DRAIS


of wickets sequence as follows :

When did Jenkins fall?To decide when Jenkins was out, note

that Pitchwell was bowling to Bodkins attimes when the total score was odd,because only under these circumstanceswould Bodkins be at the receiving endfrom Pitchwell. Since Bodkins did not getout in the first 12 overs the fall of wicketat 23, an odd score, means that the wicketcould not have fallen to Pitchwell. So, thiswicket must have fallen to Speedwell andso it fell before the 13th over. This wasthe one and only wicket which fell toSpeedwell. Thus we have part of the scorecard reading as follows :

Speedwell’s spellWhile Bodkins is not scoring, no over

can include more than one single. NowSpeedwell bowled six overs, none ofwhich was a maiden, with 15 runs scoredoff them. How can we distribute 15 runsover six overs so that no over containsmore than one single ? There is only onesolution; there are three overs, each withone four and three overs each with onesingle. We call the former f-overs and thelatter s-overs.

After an f-over by Speedwell, Pitchwellfinds himself bowling to Bodkins. SinceBodkins does not score at all, this mustbe a maiden over. But Pitchwell bowledonly two maidens. So, the third f-over bySpeedwell was his last over after whichTosswell came to bowl.

The 12th over of the match was bowledby Speedwell and as we saw, four runswere scored in this over. We now showthat the wicket of Jenkins fell after thesefour runs were scored. For, suppose the

wicket fell before the four runs weremade. At that time the score was 23. Ofthe 23 runs, at the most 11 were scored

off Speedwell, leaving the balance ofat least 12 runs off Pitchwell. ButPitchwell’s bowling analysis tells us

that he gave away, in all, 14 runs.Thus, in his last overs, none of which

was a maiden, he is supposed to haveconceded at the most two runs. This is

impossible. Hence, the wicket of Jenkinsfell after the four runs were scored offSpeedwell.

Distributing the fours and singles :At the beginning of the 13th over,

Bodkins, sti l l without score, facesTosswell while Larkins (also with zeroscore) is at the other end. Pitchwell’sbowling analysis so far is : 6—2—8—3.

Pitchwell gives away six more runsin the remaining six overs. As none

of these is a maiden, each over hasone run in it. Earlier we sawthat Tosswell conceded threesingles. Thus, in all, there arenine singles scored in the

remaining part of the match. Who scoredthese ? Meakins, with a score of sevenmust have scored at least three; Perkinswith a score of 11 also scored at leastthree singles, Simkins at least two andWilkins one single.

So, the nine singles are all accountedfor and the scoring strokes of the playersafter Jenkins got out are:

The order of fours and singles is still tobe decided.

Was Tosswell’s first over a maiden ? Ifit were, then Pitchwell bowled his overto Larkins. But Larkins scored his four runswith a boundary. So, he did not score atall in this over by Pitchwell, because


KARL DRAIS


Pitchwell conceded only one run in eachof his overs. But if Larkins did not score atall, this over was a maiden: which alsocontradicts the fact that Pitchwell bowledno more maidens after his first six overs.So, we arrive at the conclusion that

Tosswell’s first over was not a maiden.It can be easily established that the

sequence of runs and wickets in this overmust be--4, 4; wickets, 4, 1, 4. FirstBodkins scores his eight runs and gets out.Then Meakins scores five of his seven runsand crosses over and Larkins scores hisfour runs off the last ball. (Other combi-nations of fours and ones don’t work.)

Thus, in the 14th over, Meakins faces

Pitchwell while Larkins is at theother end. Neither of themsurvived until Tosswell’s secondnon-maiden over, because in

that over the batsmenconcerned score boundaries,

while Meakins has onlytwo runs to score and

Larkins zero. So, wehave to fill up with

maidens fromTosswel l whileMeakins slowlytakes his score toseven and gets outin the 22nd overbowled byPitchwell. In the23rd over Tosswellconcedes 14runs. It is easy totrace the rest ofthe innings fromthere onwards.

The answer(1) Speedwell

took the wicket of Jenkins. Tosswell tookthe wicket of bodkins. (2) Wilkins was notout . The rest of the wickets fel l toPitchwell. (3) The wickets fell at : 6, 12,18, 23, 31, 41, 44, 59, 59, 60.

Jayant V. Narlikar is Emeritus Professor at Inter-

University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics

(IUCAA), Pune, Maharashtra.

STATEMENT ABOUT OWNERSHIP AND OTHER PARTICULARS OF ‘SAFARI’ MONTHLY, AHMEDABAD AS REQUIRED UNDER RULE-8 OFTHE REGISTRATION OF NEWSPAPERS RULES,1956

FORM - IV (SEE RULE-8)

1. Place of Publication : AHMEDABAD

2. Periodicity of its publication : Monthly

3. Printer’s Name : Nagendra VijayWhether citizen of Indian : YesAddress : 212-215, AnandMangal-3,

Nr. Parimal Crossing, Ellisbridge,Ahmedabad-380006.

4. Publisher’s Name : Nagendra VijayWhether citizen of Indian : YesAddress : 212-215, AnandMangal-3,


5. Editor’s Name : Nagendra VijayWhether citizen of Indian : YesAddress : 212-215, AnandMangal-3,


6. Names & addresses of : Nagendra Vijayindividuals who own more 212-215, AnandMangal-3,than 1% of the total capital Nr. Parimal Crossing, Ellisbridge,

Ahmedabad-380006.

I, Nagendra Vijay, hereby declare that the particulars given above aretrue to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Date : 01/03/2008 Nagendra Vijay (Publisher)

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The Maldives: Here today,

gone tomorrow

D. N. Kaushik


Global warming, in one way or the other, is badly

affecting many a nation. However, the fate of the

Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean is

more serious than any others. The very existence

of this sea-locked nation is in danger

Although one would hardly associate the ill-fated super

liner Titanic with the Indian Ocean archipelago of theMaldives, they both are part of a hidden irony that is likelyto emerge in not too distant future. Whereas the Titanicsank after she collided with an iceberg formed out offreezing water, it is the melting of icebergs andconsequential rise in the sea level due to the globalwarming that will eventually submerge the Maldivesbeneath the waves. And this might happen sooner thananticipated earlier, because the process of global warmingseems to be picking up speed of late and is likely toaccelerate further. If this trend continues unchecked, thevery existence of the Maldives, an independent nationconsisting of a chain of numerous islands, is in peril. Itwill be a matter of only a few decades before the Maldivesis completely erased from the map of the world on which,incidentally, it seldom finds mention even today because

of its pint-sized and widely scattered islands.What makes this cluster of islands so vulnerable to the

impending disaster and why is its fate more or less sealed?To begin with, it all boils down to the heating up of Earth’satmosphere due to the greenhouse effect. This is howthe effect works: Our sun continuously floods the Earthwith a bath of energy. This energy, consisting of short-wave radiation, slips easily through the atmosphere andstrikes the Earth’s surface which slowly radiates it backtowards space. However, some of this reflected long-waveinfrared energy is prevented from escaping by traceamounts of greenhouse gases in which carbon dioxidehas a major share. A specific amount of heat is, therefore,retained in the atmosphere while the well--balanced cycleof inward and outward flow of energy continues. Left toitself, this cycle results in natural regulatory system thatmodulates the global temperature so as to keep it just

right for life--not too hot,


Maldives Islands

not too cold. A finely-tunedequilibrium is maintained all byitself. But throw in some morecarbon dioxide along with someother greenhouse gases such asmethane and the system goes outof gear. Regrettably, this is whatmankind has been doing since thepast 250 years or so. Since theIndustrial Revolution, theconcentration of CO2 in theatmosphere has increased fromabout 280 ppm/parts per millionin 1750 to nearly 380 ppm in2007. As a matter of fact, level of the atmospheric CO2 ishigher now than at any time in the past 8,00,000 years.The principal cause is the combustion of fossil fuels whichin 2007 loaded the atmosphere with more than 27 billiontons of carbon. Each molecule of CO2 lingers in theatmosphere for about 100 years during which it incessantlybarricades the outgoing solar radiation whereas theincoming radiation enters the atmosphere unhindered.

Result: An inevitable rise in globalaverage temperature, melting oficebergs and icecaps, rise in thesea level and eventualsubmergence of low-lying areaslike the Maldives.

That a grim disaster lies in waitfor the Maldives has been knownfor quite some time now. So whatis new? Here is the latest. TheMaldives government has askedpeople to pull out from a fewmore islands that are now beingengulfed by the surrounding

ocean, Government has vacated four islands, while thepopulace of 15 to 16 islands is voluntarily pulling out andmigrating to more or less secure places. A few decadesago 220 of the 1,192 islands were populated, but todaythe number is around 200. And this could be just thebeginning. As the global warming brings about furtherrise in sea level, this unfortunate nation will have to forfeitmore and more islands till there is water everywhere and

not a place to stand. What the future has in store forthe Maldivians was startlingly brought home to themon December 26, 2004 when the Indian Ocean tsunamikilled at least 82 people and displaced more than 21,600inhabitants. The surging wave that hit the Maldivesdidn’t just strike the shoreline. In some places, the waveswept over entire islands because all the islands arelow-lying, none rising to more than 1.8 meter (6 feet)above sea level. Viewed from an aircraft, all the islandsappear to be flattened discs spread far and wide acrossthe ocean. It is this elevation--or the lack of it--thatmakes the Maldives particularly susceptible to the risingsea level caused by global warming. Although manycountries will see their shoreline engulfed by theadvancing seas, all they might have to forego would bea few kilometres wide coastal belt. For the flat andfragmented Maldives, with a megre area to spare, thefirst straw on the camel’s back could prove to be theproverbial last.

The reason for this jinxed nation’s bleak future canbe traced to its past. The group of islands extending885 km north-south and 160 km west-east has a landarea of only 1 percent of this large stretch. This amountsto only 298 square km of land. The rest is all ocean.Some of these islands measure hardly 1 to 2 squarekm. The capital island of Male is hardly 12 square km.Obviously, when the land is so minimal and moreoverdivided into a number of bits and pieces, even a smalladvance of the ocean would bring down the total landarea considerably. To gain a better perspective, imagine

Chain of the Maldivian

islands and islets as

seen by satellite

orbiting the earth


Maldives Islands

an unbroken circular island of 298 square km having acoastline approximately 61 km long. It is clear that theperipheral length of the seashore which the assailing seacan eat into would be quite limited in this case. This is sobecause the entire landmass has gone into making a singleisland of large size with proportionately l imitedcircumference. Now suppose this island is broken up into1,192 pieces like the Maldives. If the fragments are ofequal size, each would measure 0.25 square km, but thetotal length of their coastline would measure up to 2,112kms. Assuming that the rate at which the sea is advancingremains the same, the land area engulfed by it would be34 times more.

This is exactly what has happened in the case of theMaldives. Its geography is proving to be its undoing. Ifonly this country, instead of being broken into 1,192 piecesof different sizes, had been one whole landmass of 298square kms, its coastline exposed to the sea would nothave been very long. However, this not being the case,the Maldives is doomed to submerge and it won’t be longbefore the rising sea gobbles up the last of its islands.

There is yet another reason why this hapless country isso much at the mercy of global warming. Mid-oceanic aswell as offshore islands are formed in three ways. Firstly,

they may be formed by erosional processes that cause anarea of land to become separated from the mainland. Inmuch the same way, rising sea levels can also lead to thedevelopment of such offshore islands by drowning low-lying areas and cutting off higher areas from the mainlandmass. The formation of second type of islands involvesconsiderable volcanic activity. A submerged volcano mayrepeatedly eject lava which would, over a period of time,harden and accumulate to enormous thickness until itshump finally breaks through the surface. Indonesian aswell as Hawaiian islands belong to this group. Nearly allof them have attained significant heights, so they are atno risk of submergence even if there is a considerablerise in sea level due to global warming. The layered heapof lava that forms Hawaii, for instance, rises as high as9,750 meters (32,000 feet) from the ocean floor.

There is a third category of islands of which the Maldivesgroup is a striking as well as a fascinating example. Theislands that belong to this breed are not offshoots ofvolcanic activity; nor are they isolated segments of themainland. They are created, bit by bit, by the chalkyskeletons of millions of tiny creatures known as polyps.These tiny colonial organism, which measure about 2.5mm in length, draw calcium carbonate (limestone) from

Coral reef develops on the sea-bed wherever the

depth is between 100 and 150 feet. Temperature is

an important factor and reefs occur only in waters

whose tempreture never drops below 180 Celsius


Maldives Islands

the seawater and make aprotective shield around theirunderbelly. Using this substanceas a plastering agent, each polypattaches itself to another polypand the assemblage thus formedestablishes itself on the seabedor a rock. Within a short time,substance hardens and theentire colony dies. But not invain, because its death heraldsthe beginning of a stupendousconstruction which is a marvel byany engineering standard. As thefounders of this first colony die,their compounded skeletonssupport the later generations ofpolyps and an exquisite coral structure begins to takeshape. Year after year, millions of polyps die, each havingserved as Bob the Builder in its own modest way.

The process is long-drawn and continues from onegeneration to next. The result is that the coral mass keepson extending upwards. Under normal circumstances, sucha build-up seldom, if ever, surfaces above the sea level.This is because the upward growth of the coral ceasesonce sea level is reached. However, if the coral reef isbuilt on the circular fringe of a subsurface volcano oraround the cropped up peak of a mountain whichsubmerges later on, it would be a different story. Oceanwaves now get to work, breaking away parts of the reefand slowly piling up the fragments within the circle toform a f lat , disc-like island. It is then left to theenvironment to bring the juvenile island in good shape.With the passage of time, atmospheric dust accumulatesto slightly elevate mass. Bird droppings follow. Airborneseeds settle to sprout. Wind-blown insects from all overalight to breed. Incessant sea waves deposit biodegradable

waste to firm up the shore. Allthese environmental influences goa long way to consolidate the coralisland into a uniform landmass,which would not, however, risemuch above sea level. Yet theprocess of creating even the low-contour island is so leisurely thatin some cases it takes close to1,00,000 years before theformation is more or less complete.In fact this slow process is as fastas it can get, because instead ofbricks, it is the minute skeletonsmeasuring a few millimeters thatdevelop into the coral island withan area of a few square kilometres.

The Maldive group of islands is also the culmination ofthe Dadhichi-like self-sacrifice of generations of polyps.On an average, each island took about 1,50,000 years toget into its present shape. And now scourge of globalwarming, with its attendant rise in sea levels, is set toerase them all from the world map within no less than 50years. As a preventive measure, based more on despairthan design, the Maldives Government has built theboundary walls around largely populated islands. Thesewalls are meant only to absorb the force of the poundingwaves. Curbing the rise in sea level is another matter.Obviously, the problem lies elsewhere. It lies in the globalwarming which, in turn, owes its evil spell to thegreenhouse effect.

The greenhouse effect is a term used for describinghow greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane,nitrous oxide and ozone in the earth’s atmosphere reducethe amount of heat escaping from the surface of the earth.Solar energy, in form of shortwave radiation penetratesthe thick atmosphere and warms the surface of the earth.

The warmed earth thenemits longwaveradiation back intospace. However, only asmall portion of suchenergy (i.e. longwaveradiation) makes it backto space. The largeamount of the outgoingradiation is absorbed bythe greenhouse gasesin the earth’satmosphere. Althoughgreenhouse gases makeup only a few percent of


Maldives Islands

the earth’s atmosphere, theyregulate the climate by absorbingheat energy (radiation) andeventually creating a warm blanketaround earth. Without this invisibleblanket life on earth would notprobably exist, as the averagetemperature would be somewherearound minus 200 Celsius.

Thus, the greenhouse effect is anaturally occurring process thathelps keeping the earth’satmosphere warm. The problembegins when human activitiesdistort the atmosphere by emittingmore greenhouse gases. Theconcentration of the greenhousegases has been increasing in theatmosphere over the last threecenturies due to burning of fossilfuels. Higher concentration of the greenhouse gases inatmosphere ultimately absorbs more heat energy andincreases average temperature of earth. One of thegreenhouse gases, which plays major role in acceleratinggreenhouse effect is carbon dioxide. Every molecule ofCO2 is made of one atom of Carbon and two atoms ofOxygen. Billions of such molecules in the atmosphereabsorb heat energy to a great extent resulting the averagetemperature to rise. The more we burn fossil fuels likepetroleum, coal and natural gas, the more CO2 is producedand greenhouse effect becomes more intense.

Nevertheless, this is what mankind has been doing sincemany years. Approximately 280 billion tons of CO2 hasbeen emitted in the atmosphere since the beginning ofthe Industrial Revolution in 1750. Half of this was emittedafter 1970. For example, in 1950, 1.6 billion tons carbondioxide was ‘produced’ and in 2007 this figure rose up to27 billion tons! America is chiefly responsible for suchstaggering increase. The population of America is not even5% of the world population, yet its contribution to thetotal amount of CO2 is 24%. In terms of per capita average,an American citizen produces around 20 tons of CO2.Twenty times more as compared to an Indian citizen.

In order to check pollution of CO2, representatives of160 nations met at Kyoto, city of Japan in 1997. The agendawas to find ways of reducing the excessive pollution ofthe notorious CO2. An international treaty called ‘KyotoProtocol’ was drafted. Initially, America declared its supportfor the treaty. But, in 2001, President Bush refused to giveconsent to the ‘Kyoto Protocol’. Bush realised that in theyear 2000, (prior to his becoming president) America hademitted 5.8 billion tons CO2, whereas according to Kyoto

Protocol the annual emission limit was fixed to 4.7 billiontons. An access emission of 1.080 billion tons of CO2 hadto be scaled down once the ‘Kyoto Protocol’ treaty issigned. It was not difficult for America to find out techno-logical solutions for reducing pollution of CO2. PresidentGeorge Bush neither ratified nor withdrew from the treaty.Today, America emits nearly 6 billion tons of CO2 inatmosphere. China, Russia, Japan and India emit 6.2 billiontons, 4.7 billion tons, 1.3 billion tons and 1.15 billion tonsrespectively. The CO2 released to the atmos-phere today,remains there for a century or two. This leads to anincreasing concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, whichin turn causes the average temperature of earth to rise.

Increasing global temperature is causing a broad rangeof changes. Sea levels are rising due to melting of polarice caps. For the 2,81,000 people of Maldives, the questionis how to survive in the midst of the all round invasion ofthe sea ? Some researchers believe that since the sealevel has increased by approximately 25 centimetres inthe 20th century, it will hardly take fifteen more yearsfor a similar increase now. And before that, 1,100 out ofthe total 1,192 islands of Maldives would have submergedinto the sea. A 5,700 square km chunk of ice in the SouthPole region suddenly broke and melted in the sea in theyear 2002. If many other huge chunks of ice fall prey tothe heat generated by the greenhouse effect, the rest ofthe Maldives will become extinct even earlier. If the yearof extinction happens to be 2012 like the deadline of the‘Kyoto Protocol’, the simile between the island-like‘Titanic’ and the Titanic-like group of islands wouldbecome complete, because that steamer sank hundredyears ago in 1912.

An aerial view of Male, capital of Maldives, which is home for nearly 80,000 Maldivians

From liftoff to landing:

How does space

shuttle do it ?


Harshal Pushkarna

NASA’s space shuttle is a reusable spacecraft

designed to carry payloads and astronauts to and

from earth orbit. Ever wondered how this unique

craft works ? Here is the scientific explanation

The American space shuttle is a unique three-in-onevehicle whose configuration and working can not becompared with any other. It serves as a rocket whenlaunching, functions as a manned spaceship during orbitsaround the earth and on its re-entry into the earth’satmosphere after completion of its mission it lands on therunway like an airplane. It plays all these roles in the samerespective order. However, let us begin the description ofits space odyssey from landing rather than from launch,because the preparations for its launch commenceimmediately on completion of its previous mission--successful landing is the starting point of its next launch.

There is a sprawling air force complex named EdwardsAir Force Base covering a vast area of 1,218 squarekilometres in California USA, where the longest runway inthe world stretching 11,920 metres (almost twelvekilometres) has been specially constructed for the shuttleto land. Although the space shuttle starts its space odysseyfrom Cape Canaveral in Florida on the east coast of theUSA, it lands at Edwards Base on the west coast. Thedistance between the two is almost 4,000kilometres so the shuttle has to be transportedfrom California to Florida on its return fromspace. This distance is negligible incomparison with its space voyagespanning millions of kilometresbut the orbiter no longerremains a rocket or anairplane once it has landed


and is unable to cover even thisrelatively short distance under its ownpower. It has to be ferried to its launchsite at Cape Canaveral, riding piggyback atop a custom-made Boeing-747Jumbo jet.

A typical space shuttle mission is aremarkable scientific and technologicalachievement in itself so it is worthdiscussing at some length. After theshuttle or the orbiter lands, it remainsparked at the end of the runway whereit has come to a halt. The astronautsdo not disembark from the orbiterstraightaway, but stay within it for about an hour or so.Having spent a fortnight or so in weightless condition,they need some time to adapt to earth’s gravity. Besides,all the systems of the shuttle have to be shutdown, andthis takes time. While the astronauts are going throughthis routine the technicians on ground startdecontamination of the orbiter which has undergoneheavy bombardment of cosmic radiation during flight.There is little possibility of any microbial contaminationbut the outer surfaces must be sanitised just in case.Thereafter, unused fuel in the orbiter tanks is drainedout. The orbiter is then pulled into the gigantic hangerof Jumbo jet elsewhere at Edwards Base.

An ordinary Boeing-747 Jumbo would be too heavy tofly with orbiter weighing seventy tons sitting on its backso this particular aircraft has been shorn of all non-essential fixtures like the seats, carpets, panels and handbaggage racks. Similarly, any electric wiring which theaircraft can do without has been removed. On the otherhand, vertical fins have been added to the tail plane toensure greater stability when the aircraft is flying withthe orbiter strapped on its back.

The customised Boeing-747 now awaits its seventyton hitchhiker in a special gigantic hanger at EdwardsAir Force Base. After the orbiter is brought to thishanger a powerful crane slowly lifts it and carefullylowers it atop the Jumbo jet where it is securelyfastened by means of three sturdy bolts each 30centimetres long and having a diameter of 9centimetres. The orbiter now sits at an angle, withthe forward section raised a bit higher than the aft.This angle, called the angle of attack, results inadditional lift as the oncoming airflow creates morepressure under the orbiter’s backward--slantingwings. Finally, the aircraft-orbiter pair, weighing atotal of 256 tons, takes off for its nine hour lumberingflight to Cape Canaveral at slow speed of 450kilometres per hour with two jet fighters in escort.

On arrival of the orbiter at Cape Canaveral, techniciansbegin the procedure that is reverse of that followedearlier at Edwards Base. The Jumbo, shouldering theorbiter, is towed into a 33.5 metres (110 feet) highgigantic hanger. After the securing bolts are unscrewed,the orbiter is raised 18.3 metres (60 feet) high in the airwith four thick steel cables to allow the aircraft to moveaway from it. Meanwhile, the orbiter’s wheel bay isopened and the landing gear is lowered. A few minuteslater, the orbiter itself is gently lowered onto the floor.

Now, the preparations begin for the orbiter’s nextflight. They are so intricate and elaborate that it wouldbe at least five months before the orbiter is ready forrelaunch. Its voyage around earth covers anythingbetween 45,00,000 and 90,00,000 kilometres and theduration could be as long as fortnight. To ensure thateach component of the orbiter functions faultlessly, it issubjected to an exhaustive preflight checkup and over-hauling. Each of its three rocket engines is dismantledand laid on a platforms known as work benches wherehelium gas is pumped under high pressure into theengine tubes to check whether they are reliably sound.The faintest leakage of helium from even a microscopic

On its return from space fuel removal from the orbiter is carried out on runway

Orbiter atop the custom-made Boeing-747 Jumbo jet on the way to Cape Canaveral


Space shuttle: Liftoff to landing

p u n c t u r eanywhere in the

maze of tubes can be detected by thegas analyser. Another example of rigorous

inspection: Nearly 18.3 metres longand 6.9 metres wide cargo bay orpayload bay is the maincompartment of the orbiter which ismeant for carrying satellites andcomponents of international space

station. The bay’s two doors extendingup to its entire length open like those

of a toolkit box. It is from this cargo holdthat the astronauts launch or retrieve

satellites. When the orbiter is in space, thesedoors have to be kept open to dissipate theheat generated by various electrical instru-

ments inside the orbiter. They are closedonly before the orbiter is due for re-entryinto the earth’s atmosphere. When thetechnicians inspect the cargo bay, greatcare is exercised so that they don’t leaveeven an errant hair in it, not to mention

any inadvertently dropped objects likecomb, coin or a button. If any of suchobjects end up in the wrong place andthe bay doors do not shut flush, theorbiter would be exposed to extremelyhigh temperature caused by air friction

during the re-entry phase. Similarly, anydamage to the bay’s inner quilting would be

equally dangerous, because thisinternal layer is made of a

special substance which

functions l ike the radiator of a motor car.It dumps out excess heat, thereby keeping thetemperature inside the shuttle within bearable limits. Inview of such stringent requirements, the techniciansempty their pockets and tape their jewelry on their skin.A more stringent rule stipulates that during certainchecks, they wear head-to-heel bunny suits. Such a high-level of meticulousness is dictated also by the need toensure that a satellite or the components of internationalspace station carried aboard the orbiter are notcontaminated by dust or hair.

For the technicians who tune up the space shuttle forits next flight, perhaps the most crucial work is theexamination of the tiles, numbering about 27,000, whichare glued to the outer surface of the orbiter. These tilesare heat-resistant and shield the orbiter from theenormous temperatures up to 16500 Celsius encounteredwhen it makes a high-velocity plunge into the earth’satmosphere. At that time, the orbiter is enveloped in afireball and astronauts can actually see the flamesoutside. Obviously, the intense heat must affect the tilesand even if one of them is dislodged during take off;result can be disastrous as it happened in the case of ill-fated Columbia. The gap between any two adjoining tilesmust not be more than 1.5 millimetres. The work ofremoval of damaged or suspect ti les and theirreplacement by the new ones with special adhesive isdone with utmost care and takes considerable time. Infact, if it is entrusted to only one technician, it wouldtake him not less than 335 years. Therefore, the task ofchecking and repairing the mosaic is performed by teams

The space shuttle: To and from journey



of technicians; and yet not more thantwo tiles can be replaced per week. All

27,000 tiles, each with its own shape and serial number,must be certified as fit to fly. In spite of such extremeprecautions, some tiles fell off the shuttle Columbia whileit was ferried atop the Jumbo jet way back in 1981. Andwhen such mishap occurred again during the launch in2003, Columbia was destroyed during re-entry.

After three months of very exacting examination ofall the components and systems, not less than 60 daysare required to prime the orbiter and convert it into aspace shuttle before it can be transported to the launchpad. Although this three-in-one craft performs the roleof a rocket at the time of launching, the total thrust ofthe orbiter’s three engines is not more than 37,00,000horsepower. This is only 29% of the boost required toinject it into nearly 600 kilometres high orbit. Hence, forthe remaining 71% thrust, two additional solid fuelbooster rockets have to be employed. These reusablerockets could possibly be those which were jettisonedby the same space shuttle during the previous missionwhen their fuel was exhausted. Empty of fuel butotherwise in good shape, these rockets had safelysplashed down with the help of parachutes in the AtlanticOcean from where they were retrieved by the naval ships.(See figure No. 1 in the diagram on page 26.) Each rocketis 46 metres in length and has diameter of 3.7 metres.

These booster rockets are so made as to be reusablefor about 20 launches by refilling them with solid fuel.The empty shells of these rockets retrieved from theocean are brought back to a technical complex namedSolid Fuel Assembly at Cape Canaveral. (See figure No. 2in the diagram). Each booster rocket comprises of foursections and although devoid of any fuel, it weighs notless than 83 tons. The technicians uncouple all the foursections and fill them with hard lumpy solid fuel. Threemain ingredients of the solid fuel are: fine aluminumpowder 16%, polybutadiene 12% and ammoniumperchlorate 70%. Aluminum powder releases substantialenergy as it burns at high temperature and givesmaximum boost to the space shuttle during take-offs.Ammonium perchlorate which is also used inmanufacture of firecrackers is not fuel, but an oxidizer. Itprovides oxygen for combustion. Polybutadiene is used

as the binder of solid fuel, butit also doubles as fuel.

After the solid fuel has beenloaded in all the four sectionsof each booster rocket they are joinedtogether on the crawler platform to convertthem into one-piece rocket. (See figure No.3 in diagram). Each rocket is primed withabout 504 tons of solid fuel raising itsaggregate weight to 587 tons. Obviously, therocket platform has to be a mobile one inorder to transport the rockets for further upthe assembly. As the platformwith vertically placed rocketsslowly crawls forward, a powerfulcrane places on it a mammothtank meant to carry liquid fuel. (Figure No.4). The fuel tank measures 8.4 metres indiameter and stands 47 metres high.Although empty, it weighs 33.5 tons. Liquidoxygen is stored in a special chamber in itsnose section and liquid hydrogen is storedin the other chamber behind it. It is this tankthat has to feed fuel to three rocket enginesat the rear end of the orbiter. The necessityof a separate detachable fuel tank isdictated by the fact that this 2,050 cubicmetre tank would be too much of a burdenif it were not jettisoned.

The transport crawler, with the solidfuel booster rockets and the liquid fueltank already mated and poised upright onit, now awaits the orbiter in the VehicleAssembly Building. After the orbiter is towedinto this complex, a mammoth crane lifts itoff the floor and 70 ton spacecraft hoistednose-up midair. (See figure No. 5) Ever sogently, the shuttle is swung over to thecrawler and affixed to the tank andboosters. For a week or sothereafter, tests are run on theelectrical and mechanical systemsthat connect the orbiter, tank andboosters.

y



Days later, the crawler with the three-in-one clusterpoised vertically on it, rolls to the launching pad at theglacial pace of 1.5 kilometres per hour. Its two dieselengines rated at 2,750 horsepower run four 1,000--kilowatts generators, which in turn drive 16 tractionmotors. The trip to the launch pad 39A about 20kilometres away takes seven hours. (See figure No. 6 inthe diagram on page 26). Over the next seven weeksfinal tests are run, including electrical checks, hydraulicsflexing and simulated countdown.

At last the day, which months of planning andpreparations have led up to, arrives. The crew get upabout five hours before the scheduled launch. All thecrew member dress in a fire-resistant one-piece flight-suit and they carefully stuff calculators, flashlights, foodsticks, and pocket knives and pens etc. into dozens ofpockets. Personal belongings such as driving licence arehanded over to the ground staff but not pre-issued visasfor rapid delivery to countries where the crew might landif the mission is aborted midway.

Minutes before the lift-off, astronauts are escorted to

the cockpit of the orbiter by a service lift where theycarry out final checks on the controls. Earlier, ground crewhas charged both the chambers of external fuel tank with5,28,000 litres of liquid oxygen and 14,32,000 litres ofliquid hydrogen. The scheduled time for take-off isdesignated by the letter T. The duration prior to take-offis called T-minus and the duration after the take-off iscalled T-plus. Here’s how the sequence goes:

Time: T-minus 8 seconds. Thousands of litres ofwater is released into an empty depression (see figureNo. 6) beneath the launch pad. This torrent is necessaryto absorb the sound energy of tremendous roar that willsoon emanate from the rocket engines as they ignite.Unless effectively muffled the reverberation couldseverely damage wings and rudder as well as fragilepayload such as satellite held in the cargo bay. Besides,vibrations may cause a couple of insulator tiles to fall off.

Time : T-minus 6 seconds. As both liquid fuels gushin the rocket engines of the orbiter through a massivefuel pipe having diameter of 43 centimetres, orange-coloured flames shoot out from their exhausts. Liquid

The assembled shuttle is being moved to the

launch complex on the giant crawler



hydrogen and liquid oxygen flow into the engines at therate of 1,79,000 and 66,000 litres respectively perminute. The solid booster rockets have not been ignitedyet. And there is a good reason for it. In case of a snag ifthe mission has to be aborted prematurely, it is possibleto shut down the orbiter engines by cutting off the flowof liquid fuel. But it is not possible to switch-off the solidfuel rockets once the combustion has started. Meanwhile,the launch pad has been cleared of all the members ofthe ground staff. All of them are shifted about fivekilometres away. The only observers in the vicinity areHigh-Definition Television/HDTV cameras doing hawk-eyed recording of the event for later scrutiny, if necessary.

Time : T. Exactly T-neither minus nor plus. Both thesolid fuel rockets begin to emit flames as their combined1,008 tons of propellant is ignited. Next moment, thesupportive connections with 106 metre tall service towerare severed. The tower leans backward as clouds ofsmoke spread all around the shuttle. For most part, theycontain vapour formed by thousands tons of evaporatingwater in the ditch below the launch pad. Soon thegigantic conglomeration of the orbiter, tank and boostersweighing about 2,000 tons takes off and ascends skywardwith increasing speed. (Figure No. 7). The total thrust offive rocket engines is quite astounding. It is equal tocombined thrust of 150 jet engines of the type used forBoeing-747. As speed builds up, the effect of earth’sgravitational pull (G-force) on the astronauts increases.The pull of gravity which was 1G earlier at the groundlevel, increases to 3G within moments. Put differently,weight of a 70 kilogram astronaut now registers 210kilograms and that means he has to make tremendouseffort even for extending his hand towards the controls.The space shuttle itself receives much buffeting duringthis initial phase of acceleration. Its speed one minuteafter take-off: 4,800 kilometres per hour.

Time : T-plus 2 minutes. By now thespace shuttle has turned east and hastaken a trajectory course. It has alreadyreached an altitude of 45 kilometresabove the earth. The astronautsexperience sudden deceleration as thesolid fuel booster rockets detach from theliquid fuel tank by controlled explosions.(Figure No. 8.) Empty casings, soondeploying their parachutes, splash downin the Atlantic Ocean about 280 kilometresaway from Cape Canaveral. As they floaton the surface, their water-activatedtransmission beams radio signals to navalcraft which locate and recover them.

Time : T-plus 9 minutes. The orbiter

reaches speedof 17,700kilometres anhour by now andit has attainedan altitude of112 kilometres.One morecontrolled explo-sion and thegiant liquid fueltank frees itselffrom the orbiter.(Figure No. 9).The orbiter hasused up thistank ’s fuelwithin eightminutes. Thetank burns anddisinte-grates asit plummets inthe atmosphere at a high speed and its debris scatterover an area of 965 sq. kms in the Indian Ocean.

Time : T-plus 10 minutes and 30 seconds. Afterjettisoning the liquid fuel tank all three engines of theorbiter are shut down. The rate of acceleration decreases,but the shuttle is not rendered powerless. It has twosmaller engines known as Orbital Manoeuvreing System(OMS) in the tail assembly on both the sides of the rudder.They take over as the shuttle reaches the threshold ofspace. The fuel of these engines is not liquid hydrogenand liquid oxygen, but hydrazine and nitrogen tetroxide.

Photograph below clearly shows the orbiter’s spacious cargo bay and its

precious cargo as seen from the International Space Station

Service tower of the launch pad leans backwards

as the space shuttle takes-off with its rocket

engines spewing flames



One of the properties of these chemicals is that theyspontaneously ignite on mixing. They do not require aspark to start combustion. With OMS firing together,orbiter speeds up to 28,300 kilometres per hour. Stillgaining altitude, it enters the orbit that it arrives at thestarting point of its low level orbital path. (Figure No.10). The orbit around the earth is ellipsoid or egg-shaped.The lowest point (perigee) of the orbital path is 185kilometres above earth and the farthest point (apogee)is 1,110 kilometres. The mission commander graduallyrefines it into 400 kilometres circular orbit by regulatedand repeated thrusts of OMS. This altitude is almost thesame as that of International Space Station which is alsoorbiting earth. It should be noted that now the shuttle isorbiting in upside-down mode and its cargo bay has beenopened to expel the heat generated by electrical/electronic systems on board. The next manoeuvre is thatof docking with International Space Station. Once this isdone, the orbiter’s 13.4 metres long mechanical armtakes out the payload (Figure No. 11) to transfer it tothe space station. Some astronauts also shift to the spacestation to relieve its occupants who come on board theorbiter to return home.

The orbiter generally spends about one week in thespace, but it is equipped to extend the trip by one moreweek if necessary. Throughout this period storage tanksof l iquid nitrogen and l iquid oxygen on boardcontinuously release their contents to maintain earthlike

atmosphere at a pressure of 14.7 pounds per square inch.Chemical filters meant to soak up carbon dioxide ensurethat it does not exceed the permissible limit. Water supplydoes not pose any problem at all because fuel cells thatgenerate electric power for internal systems produce 11litres of water per hour as by-product.

As far as communication is concerned, the astronautsremain in constant contact with their base through a datarelay satellite parked in geosynchronous orbit 35,880kilometres above earth. The satellite’s function is similarto a tower of mobile phones. It is also interesting to notethat during most of the space flight, the astronauts donot directly control the space shuttle. This task isperformed by five computer systems on board. Theastronauts merely have to give commands to thecomputers, each one of which can make 3,25,000calculations per second and execute the commands.

The most hazardous part of space shuttle’s journey isthat of re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere whencapabilities of men and the machine are put to a severetest. After the mission commander shuts the cargo bayby remote control, the orbiter is given 1800 backwardturn on vertical axis to reverse its orientation. (FigureNo. 12). This is an essential manoeuvre, reverse thrustneeds to be applied to rein its speed of 28,000 kilometresper hour and ensure safe and controlled descent.Obviously, the OMS engines should point towards thedirection of its momentum to achieve this. The bursts ofjets in reverse direction gradually reduce the orbiter’s

speed as wel l asaltitude. As a result ofthis manoeuvre, whichlasts about 25 minutes,the orbiter re-enters theupper atmosphere not inhead first position buttail first. (Figure No. 13).

Increasing frictionwith the gradual lydenser atmosphereproduces heat up to16500 Celsius. Beforereaching that stage themission commandernegotiates the orbiter inbelly down position sothat it’s under surfaceand sides which are fullycovered with protectivetiles are exposed to themaximum heat . Thisattitude also reduces its

Planet earth as seen from the flight deck of an orbiter



rate of descent at thesame time. (Figure No.14). It may be recalledthat space shuttleColumbia with astronautKalpna Chawla amongothers had met with thefatal accident at preciselythis stage of re-entry intothe earth’s atmosphere. Acouple of tiles dislodgedat the time of launchingwere responsible for thetragic mishap.

After the speed hasbeen reducedconsiderably friction is no longer a risk factor,so the orbiter’s nose is lowered and descentthen continues in a shallow dive. (Figure No.15). In this mode, the orbiter is no longer aspaceship, but an airplane--not fully though, onaccount of its stubby delta wings. Besides, itson board engines provide much less thrust foratmospheric flight. In short, it compares morewith a glider. It now descends belly first whileits nose is raised at an angle of nearly 400.(Figure No. 16). Minutes later, it touches downon 12 kilometres long runway at a considerablespeed of 340 kilometres per hour. (Figure No.17). No combat airplane or passenger airplanelands at such a high speed. The orbiter’s speedis reduced with the help of parachutes deployedfrom its tail. Post-landing procedures havealready been described in the beginning of thisarticle. (Figure No. 18). To recapitulate, theyinvolve draining out the residual fuel anddecontamination of the orbiter. Meanwhile, theastronauts switch-off all the systems while their bodiesreadapt to terra firma gravity.

This detailed travelogue gives the impression thatNASA’s three-in-one space shuttle is the ultimate vehicleand a workhorse parexcellence. Actually, thecraft is prone to varioussnags. It is quite risky too,on the whole. Out of fivespace shuttles made byNASA , viz . Chal lenger,Enterprise, Columbia,

Discovery and Atlantis, two challenger and Columbia weredestroyed during their missions. These fatal mishaps arenot surprising because when NASA started using spaceshuttles for manned space missions it had courted certainrisks it should not have. For example, tiles for insulation

and solid fuel rockets (the ones which cannotswitched-off after ignition) for vehicles hadnever been employed in the manned missionsbefore, yet NASA opted for them. Solid fuelrockets were responsible for the tragic mishapof Challenger in 1986 and insulation tiles whichgave away led to the loss of Columbia in 2003.Nevertheless, a tally of 118 successful missionscarried out up to February, 2008 is anoutstanding achievement of NASA--as well asits good luck up to a certain extent.

Tempretire of air around the orbiter

rises to 16500 C. when it

encounters upper atmosphere

Shushil Bhatia


In the age of internet and e-mail, English is on its way to becoming the dominant global language.

However, there is another language, with 2 million speakers worldwide, that is emerging as a universal

second language slowly but surely. The name of the language is Esperanto

A global language for the

global village: Esperanto

‘MI KOMRENA VIN’Even if this brief sentence is not comprehendible, its

playful explanation in the next few paragraphs is so easythat what is written above could well be your owneventual response. The three words of this unfamiliarlanguage mean ‘I understand you’. The language isknown as Esperanto. Whereas other languages havegradually evolved into their present form, Esperanto hasbeen specially invented to facilitate international

communication. Though this artificial language is aliento many, it is almost 120 years old. It lay somewhat inoblivion all these years, but has recently begun to evokepopular interest. The movement to popularise Esperantogained momentum when 15 nations of the EuropeanUnion (EU) admitted another 10 to its membership onMay 1, 2004 and the number of languages spoken in theEU parliament rose to 20. The figure 20 may not be a bigone, but the mathematics involved in carrying these


Global language Esperanto

Polish eye specialist Dr. L. L.

Zamenhof, who himself

knew nine languages

created Esperanto.

Below: alphabets

of Esperanto

languages to different ears is indeed enormous.Consider the situation as it existed before May 1, 2004

in the EU parliament situated in Strausburg, France.Altogether 11 languages including French, English,German, Swedish, Italian and Spanish were spoken.Generally, English is the second language in most of theseEuropean nations. Though this is the case, in the nameof national pride, the parliamentarians insist on speakingin their own different languages. The result is that whenthe representative of Spain was making his presentationin Spanish, the interpreters in a soundproof room in thebasement of the building were translating this into 10different languages and simultaneously conveying it tothe respective members. When the representative ofFrance spoke in French, he had to be translated into allother languages. This meant that 33 interpreters wereon the job. This was the situation till May 1, 2004. Once

10 more states joined the European Union, the numberof officially recognised languages went up to 20 and notless than 190 translations links became necessary. Instantoral translations apart, preparing reports of parliamentaryproceedings was another labourious task. The same stateof affairs now prevails in EU courts, committees of EUnations, different government bodies and ruling cabinetsalso. In fact, with the admission of more nations, therehas been a many-fold increase in the translators’workload. Under these conditions if all the membernations agree to use a universal language like Esperantothere would be no difficulty. In the emerging world ofglobalization and the internet, when business andpolitical fences are disappearing fast, bringing nationscloser to each other, why not surmount the foreign-language barrier also through an artificial language suchas Esperanto?

The idea of bridging the communication dividebetween different languages had occurred to manyscholars even as early as the 17th century and theyinvented almost 200 universal languages. Of these, thework by the Polish linguist Ludwik Zamenhof was themost successful in comparison to the other universallanguages propounded till then. In 1887, he published abook explaining the grammar of his universal language.He devised this new language, not foreseeing the worlda hundred years later, but as a solution to the problemsfacing his nation. Poland, in those days, was witnessingviolence in the name of languages. Different languages

like Polish, German, Russian and Yiddish were beingspoken there. Ludwik Zamenhof himself encounteredquite a few languages during the course of his early life.He was a Jew, born on the Polish-Russian frontier at thetime when Poland was a kingdom of Czarist Russia. Athome, Zamenhof spoke Russian and during a typical dayoutside he had to converse in Yiddish and Polish. In thesynagogue, he would come across other Jews like himselfwho spoke Yiddish. Besides, he was taught French,German, Latin, Greek and English in school. It wasn’t onlyyoung Zamenhof who had to frequently switch over fromone language to another, but all the people were ill atease with the excessive linguistic diversity. Moreseriously, there was a fear of the nation being fragmentedin the name of language. It was with a hope of over-coming this danger that Ludwik Zamenhof brought outthis book under the pen-name of Dr. Esperanto, meaningDr. Hopeful. In the event, the language itself came to beknown as Esperanto. Initially, the Polish were attractedtowards this language, but later on their enthusiasmwaned. However, the language caught the fancy of manypeople in other countries--India being no exception.

To gain wider acceptance in global terms, an artificiallanguage should have certain attributes. First of all, itsgrammar has to be regular and simple, compared to thatof the natural languages. Spelling should be phonetic,without confusing complexities. It must be able to fulfillthe ordinary needs of conversation and writing as wellas the specialised needs of science and commerce.


Global language Esperanto

Further, it should bepossible to translate intoand out of any naturallanguage withcomparable ease.

Esperanto meets allthese criteria to aconsiderable extent. It isindeed worthy of becoming a global languageas it is neither complicated in learning nordifficult in understanding. It uses all lettersof the Roman alphabet except Q, W, X and Y.(See, page 33.) What makes Esperanto even more user-friendly is that its vocabulary is derived mostly from theroot words common to leading languages of Europe.Besides, words are pronounced according to theirspellings, so peculiarly spelt words like ‘psychology’ and‘through’ do not find place in Esperanto. In short, the so-called ‘silent’ letters have been avoided. English languagehas two articles, ‘a’ and ‘the’, while Esperanto has onlyone article ‘la’. In English, numerals written in wordschange form. ‘One’ comes in as first, ‘two’ as second,‘five’ as fifth and so on. But in Esperanto the numeral-related words do not undergo any change. Every nounends with an ‘o’ plurals with ‘j’, adjectives with ‘a’ andadverbs with ‘e’. In English for the words ‘show’ and‘catch’ two alphabets ‘sh’ in one case and ‘ch’ in theother have to be used, while in Esperanto only onealphabet is used but with an inverted sign above eachas ‘S’ and ‘C ’. Simple, isn’t it?

Esperanto has only 16 rules of grammar, and thereare no exceptions to any rule. If a person learningEsperanto masters 500 root words, he can by addingprefixes or suffixes to each one of them easily have avocabulary of 5,000 words. In English, the opposite ofthe word ‘good’ is ‘bad’--a completely different wordaltogether. In Esperanto it is ‘Bona’ (good) and ‘Malbona’(bad) respectively. Here we see that the root word doesnot change. ‘Bona’ remains as it is, only a prefix is added.The most important aspect of this language is that it doesnot strike one as completely unfamiliar even when onehears it for the first time. Here is an example:

‘La astronauto per speciala instrumento, fotografas lalunon.” It means: “The astronautwith a special instrumentphotographs the moon.”

We see that the Englishtranslation reads almost l ikeEsperanto. The simplicity of this

language did attract many people from differentnations, though the number of curious personswanting to learn something new may be small.In 1889 the first periodical in Esperanto named

‘La Esperanto’ was published. All the articles herewere written in this language. In orderto chalk out a plan to propagateEsperanto, representatives of manynations met at an internationalconference where the UniversalEsperanto Association was formed in1908 with its headquarters in Rotterdam.

Dailies in Esperanto were published in America, Bulgaria,Japan, Britain, Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Almost 3,000books were published in this language. In addition tothe Bible, the Gita and Rabindranath Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali’also appeared in Esperanto. By the end of the 20th century,a total of many people in 110 countries of the world,knew how to speak, read and write Esperanto, as theirsecond language. Periodicals in Esperanto had crossedthe 100 mark. Enthusiasts of this language established1,200 organisations in many countries including India topromote it. In 1987, the centenary year of the publicationof Zamenhof’s first book, about 50 nations of the worldpaid tribute to the far-sighted Pole by bringing out postalstamps and minting coins (see pictutes above) in hishonour. In 1994 the mercurial Michael Jackson broughtout a compact disc of songs sung by him in Esperanto. Inthat very year the Pope gave his Easter message toCatholics around the world in this language. In spite ofthese milestones, when its case was presented beforethe UNO for the recognition as an international language(‘linguo internacia’), it was rejected. This demand wassupported by 1,00,000 signatures from 74 nations.

Many an invention is made before the world is readyfor it. Till the opportune time comes its importance isnot heeded. Esperanto is one such invention. However,in this new age of information technology andglobalisation, things may change for the better. TheJapanese stand first in using this language. As in the I. T.field, India’s Bangalore (to put it in Esperanto--‘Bangloro’city situated in ‘Karnatako’ state in ‘Barato’ nation) hastaken lead in promoting this language. Bangalore

Esperanto Centre (BEC, 97, 24th Corss,3rd Block East, Jayanagar, Bangalore.Phone: 080-25086521.) teaches LudwikZamenhof ’s language. Our formerPrime Minister P. V. Narsimha Rao spoke12 languages such as Telugu, Marathi,Hindi, Spanish, French and English. Ofthe remaining, Esperanto was anotherlanguage that he had mastered.

The flag of the Esperanto language. The green

field symbolises hope, the white symbolises

peace and the star represents five continents


“±ı¿ Áı¿LÕ ±ıÀ·ı ÁıÏÁ›‹-133 fiÎ ±bfiı 9,19,26,31,770 V’_ÿfi˘ ’˛ÁÎÏfl÷

¿fl‰Î‹Î_ ·Î√÷˘ Á‹›” ±ı T›ÎA›Îfiı ±’fiÎ‰Î›Îfiı Ë‹HÎÎ_ 40 ‰WÎ˝ ’ÒflÎ_ ◊›Î_. ±Î ’˛Á_√ı …flÎ

±ı‰Î ¤Ò÷¿Î‚‹Î_ Õ˘Ï¿›_ ¿fl˘ ¿ı F›Îflı “Áı¿LÕfi˘ ‹Î·” Õ˘fl-À<-Õ˘fl ‰ı«Î÷˘ Ë÷˘

;fdfifgff wfzdfsf+8f h[jfl u?lgfLjfrf 3fL0iff/gff sf+8fgff[ ;fdfif jf[rfgffS+ o[Lziff o[Ldf,fl

aflp vf[dfp 5f]zf[Lctf

‰Î÷ ±˘√HÎÌÁ‹Ì ÁÿÌfiÎ_ ±ı‰Î_ ’˛Îfl_Ï¤¿ ‰Ê ˝fiÌ »ı ¿ı F›Îflı Ï⁄˛Àfi‹Î_Á«˘À time/Á‹›fiÌ “ÏÕ‹ÎLÕ” ÁÎ‹ı ÷ıfi˘ “ÁM·Î›” ⁄Ë ±˘»˘ Ë÷˘. ·˘¿˘ ’ÎÁıCÎÏÕ›Î‚˘ Ë÷Ì, ’fl_÷ Á«˘À Á‹›‹Î’fifiÌ ⁄Î⁄÷ı ±Î…fiÎ …ı‰Ì ¤fl˘ÁÎ’ÎhÎfiÏË. @·˘¿ fiÏË, ’HÎ ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀfl ÷flÌ¿ı ±˘‚¬Î÷Ì «˘¿ÁÎ≥¤flÌ Ï¬VÁÎ CÎÏÕ›Î‚±I›_÷ ‹ ÓCÎÌ Ë˘‰Îfiı ¿ÎflHÎı ÁÎ‹ÎL› ·˘¿˘fiı ’˘ÁÎ÷Ì fiË˘÷Ì ±fiı …ı @·˘¿ ‰Õı÷ı‹HÎı ¿Î‹ «·Î‰‰Îfi_ ◊÷_ ÷ı‹Î_ «˘‰ÌÁ ¿·Î¿ı ’Õ÷˘ øÏ‹¿ ÷ŒÎ‰÷ Ïÿ‰Á˘’»Ì ‹˘ÀÎ …\‹·Îfi˘ ⁄fi÷˘ Ë÷˘. ’˛T≤ÏkÎÂÌ· ·˘¿˘±ı ÷ı‹fi˘ ÿˆÏfi¿ ¿Î›˝ø‹CÎÏÕ›Î‚ ’˛‹ÎHÎı ÁıÀ ¿fl‰Îfi˘ Ë˘›, ’fl_÷ ¬ÿ CÎÏÕ›Î‚fiÎ ¿Î_ÀÎ CÎflfiÎ «˘√Îfi‹Î_flËı·Ì ÁÒ›˝CÎÏÕ›Î‚/sundial ‹…⁄ ÁıÀ ¿fl‰ÎfiÎ ◊÷Î Ë÷Î. ±Î Á√‰Õ ’HÎ ⁄Ë◊˘ÕÎ ·˘¿˘ ’ÎÁı Ë÷Ì, ±ıÀ·ı F›Î_ ’„O·¿fiÎ ·Î¤Î◊ı ÁÒ›˝CÎÏÕ›Î‚ ⁄fiÎ‰ı·ÌË˘› ±ı‰Î ÁÎ‰˝…Ïfi¿ ⁄√Ì«ÎfiÌ ·˘¿˘±ı ‰Îfl_‰Îfl ‹·Î¿Î÷ ·ı‰Ì ’Õ÷Ì Ë÷Ì.‰ÎÿÏ‚›_ Ë‰Î‹Îfi Ë˘› I›Îflı ±ı‰˘ ‘y˘ ’HÎ Œ‚ı fiÏË. ‰‚Ì «˘¿ÁÎ≥fiÌ⁄Î⁄÷ı ÁÒ›˝CÎÏÕ›Î‚ ⁄Ë Á_÷˘Ê¿Îfl¿ ’HÎ fi Ë÷Ì.

«˘¿ÁÎ≥¤›* Á‹›‹Î’fi ±‹¿ ·˘¿˘‹ÎÀı ±Ïfi‰Î›˝ Ë÷_. ÿÎ.÷. ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀfl⁄fiÎ‰÷Î µI’Îÿ¿˘ «˘yÁ Á‹› ‹…⁄±ı‰Ì CÎÏÕ›Î‚fiÎ ¿Î_ÀÎ √˘ÃT›Î ’»Ì …‰ı«ÎHÎ ‹ÎÀı ÷ıfiı ⁄Ωfl‹Î_ ‹Ò¿Ì Â¿÷ÎË÷Î, ‹‘ÿÏfl›ı …ËÎΩı Á‹› ‹…⁄±ZÎÎ_Â˘ fiyÌ ¿fl÷Î_ Ë÷Î_, ¿Îfl¬ÎfiÎ_fiÌÏÂŒ˚À, flıS‰ıfi_ ÀÎ≥‹Àı⁄·, Á‹ƒfiÌ¤fl÷Ì-±˘Àfi_ ’Ò‰Î˝fi‹Îfi, ⁄ıL¿˘fi_¿Î‹¿Î… ‰√ıflı ±fiı¿ ⁄Î⁄÷˘ Á‹›fiÎ«˘yÁ ‹Î’fi ’fl ±‰·_Ï⁄÷ Ë÷Ì.T›Î’ÎflÌ ÷ı‹… Áfl¿ÎflÌ ±ı¿‹˘ ‹ÎÀı ’HÎflÎ≥À ÀÎ≥‹ ΩHÎ‰Îfi_ ±Î‰U›¿ Ë÷_.±Î ΩHÎ¿ÎflÌ ‹ÎÀı …ıfiı ’Ò»’fl» ¿flÌÂ¿Î› ÷ı‰Ì ±ı¿‹ÎhÎ Á_V◊Î √˛ÌfiÏ‰«¬Î÷ı ±Î‰ı·Ì flÎ˜›· ‰ı‘ÂÎ‚Î Ë÷Ì.Á˙◊Ì ’flŒı@À Á‹› I›Î _ ‹Ò¿ ı·Ì

√˛ÌfiÏ‰« ¬Î÷ı ±Î‰ı·Ì ‰ı‘ÂÎ‚Î, …ıfiÎ ’˛‰ıÂ¶Îflı ‹Ò¿ı·Ì CÎÏÕ›Î‚ ·˘¿˘ ‹ÎÀı flÎ≥À ÀÎ≥‹fi_ ‹Î’ÿoÕ √HÎÎ÷Ì

;fdfif jf[rfgffS+ o[Lziff o[Ldf,fl


¬√˘‚±P›ÎÁ ‹ÎÀıfiÌ CÎÏÕ›Î‚‹Î_ ’ÿÏÂ÷ ◊÷˘ Ë÷˘.’ÏflHÎÎ‹ı Á«˘À Á‹›fiÎ ±Î√˛ËÌ ·˘¿˘ “÷‹ÎflÌCÎÏÕ›Î‚ ÁËı… Ωı≥ Â¿Ì±ı ?” ±ı‰Ì Ï‰fi_÷Ì ÁÎ◊ıfl˘…ıfl˘… flÎ˜›· ‰ı‘ÂÎ‚ÎfiÌ ‹·Î¿Î÷ ·ı÷Î Ë÷Î. ±Îfl˘Ï…_ÿ˘ ÏÁ·ÏÁ·˘ ·Î_⁄˘ ‰¬÷ «ÎS›˘, ±ıÀ·ı‰ı‘ÂÎ‚Îfi˘ ±ıVÀˇ˘fi˘‹fl flÎ˜›· ¿Ëı‰Î÷˘ Ïfi›Î‹¿FË˘fi ’˘LÕ ±Î¬flı ¿oÀÎY›˘. Á‹› Ï‹·Î‰‰Î ‹ÎÀıflÎ˜›· ‰ı‘ÂÎ‚ÎfiÎ ‘yÎ ¬Î‰Î ’Õı ±ı ‰Î÷ı ·˘¿˘’HÎ ¿oÀÎY›Î ±fiı ÷ı‹HÎı Á_√Ãfi fl«Ìfiı ¿ÂÌ¿ Áfl‚T›‰V◊Î ‹ÎÀı ‰ı‘ÂÎ‚Îfiı ¤·Î‹HÎ’hÎ ’ÎÃT›˘.

◊˘ÕÎ ‰¬÷ ’»Ì T›‰V◊Î ±‹·Ì ⁄fiÌ. FË˘fi’˘LÕı ·˘¿˘fiı CÎfl⁄ıÃÎ “ÀÎ≥‹ ÁÏ‰˝Á” ±Î’‰Îfi_ ¿Î›˝’˘÷ÎfiÎ ±ÎÏÁVÀLÀ FË˘fi Ëıfi˛Ìfiı Á ÓM›_. Ëıfi˛Ì ‹Ò‚¡ıL« Ë÷˘, ’fl_÷ Ï⁄Àfi‹Î_ ‰V›˘ Ë÷˘ ±fiı ÷ı ±flÁÎfi˘¡ÎLÁÏ‰fl˘‘Ì ‹ÎË˘· Ωı÷Î_ ’˘÷Îfi_ ±Á· fiÎ‹ ’HÎ÷ıHÎı ⁄ÿ·Ì fiÎA›_ Ë÷_. ’˘LÕı ÷ıfiı fi√ÿ Á˘fiÎfiÎ¿ıÁ‰Î‚_ ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀfl ±ÎM›_, …ıfiÎ ¿Î_ÀÎ ÷ı‹fiÎ ÁıÏÀo√‰¬÷ı »ı‰ÀfiÌ Áı¿LÕ ·√Ì √˛ÌfiÏ‰«fiÌ CÎÏÕ›Î‚‹…⁄fi˘ Á‹› ⁄÷Î‰÷Î Ë÷Î. …^fi, 1836 ‹Î_FË˘fi Ëıfi˛Ì±ı Á‹›fiÌ Õ˘fl-À<-Õ˘fl ŒıflÌfi_ ¿Î‹ Âw¿›*. …\ÿÌ flÌ÷ı ¿Ë˘ ÷˘ Ëıfi˛Ì ‹Î¿ıÏÀo√ ‹ÎÀı fiÌ¿Y›˘--±fiı ‹Î¿ıÏÀo√fiÌ ’˛ Õ@À Ë÷Ì Á‹› ! ±Î≥ÏÕ›Îfi˘‰ıSÀÌ Ë÷˘, ±ıÀ·ı Ëıfi˛Ìfiı ÁŒ‚÷Î ‹‚ı ±ı fiyÌË÷_. √˛ÌfiÏ‰«◊Ì ±ı Á‹›ı fi‰ÌÁ‰Ì Âw ◊›ı·Ì ÀıfiÁÏ‰˝Á ¶ÎflÎ Ëıfi˛Ì ’ÎÀfi√fl ·_Õfi ’Ë ÓE›˘, ÂËıflfiÎÏ‰Ï‰‘ ·kÎÎ‹Î_ Œ› ˝ ±fiı Á«˘À Á‹› ΩHÎ‰Î ‹Î√÷Î Ë˘› ÷ı‰Î √˛ÎË¿˘ fi ÓK›Î.◊˘ÕÎ … ‹ÏËfiÎ‹Î_ √˛ÎË¿˘fi˘ ¿<· …\‹·˘ ⁄VÁ˘±ı ’Ë ÓE›˘, …ı‹Î_ ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀfl⁄fiÎ‰÷Ì ¿o’fiÌ±˘ ±fiı ⁄ıL¿˘ µ’flÎ_÷ T›Î’ÎflÌ ±ı¿‹˘fi˘ ÷◊Î CÎ˘Õÿ˘ÕfiÎ±Î›˘…¿˘fi˘ ’HÎ Á‹Î‰ıÂ ◊÷˘ Ë÷˘. √˛ÌfiÏ‰« ÀÎ≥‹fiı VÀıÀÁ ÏÁQ⁄˘· √HÎ÷Î·˘¿˘ ’HÎ ÷ıfiÎ ¿Î›‹Ì √˛ÎË¿ ⁄L›Î. Àıfi ‹ÎflŒ÷ Ëıfi˛Ì ÿfl Á˘‹‰Îflı √˛ÌfiÏ‰«Ω›, ‰ı‘ÂÎ‚Îfi˘ ±Ï‘¿Ú÷ ÀÎ≥‹-¿Ì’fl ÷ıfiÎ ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀflfi˘ Á‹› √˛ÌfiÏ‰«fiÌCÎÏÕ›Î‚ ΩıÕı Áfl¬Î‰ı ±fiı Ωı ⁄ı-hÎHÎ Áı¿LÕfi˘ fi∞‰˘ Œfl¿ …HÎÎ÷˘ Ë˘› ÷˘±ı ÷ŒÎ‰÷ ÀÎ_¿÷_ ÁÏÀÛÏŒ¿ıÀ ÷ıfiı ·¬Ì ÿı. (÷ŒÎ‰÷ ‰‘Îflı Ë˘› ±ı‰Î Á_Ωı√˘‹Î_ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀflfi_ ÏflÁıÏÀo√ ¿flÎ÷_ Ë÷_.) ÁÏÀÛÏŒ¿ıÀfiÌ ‹ÿ÷ Œ@÷ ÁM÷ÎË ’Òfl÷Ì Ë˘›,‹ÎÀı ⁄ÌΩ ±Ã‰ÎÏÕ›ı fi‰_ ÁÏÀÛÏŒ¿ıÀ …wflÌ ⁄fiı. ±Î ’˛‹ÎHÎ’hÎ Ωı›Î ’»Ì …Ëıfi˛ÌfiÎ √˛ÎË¿˘ ÷ıfiı Ïfi‘Î˝Ïfl÷ ÿflı ±‹¿ ’ıLÁfiÌ fl˘¿ÕÌ ¿flÎ‰÷Î Ë÷Î.

±Î flÌ÷ı Á‹›fi_ ‰ı«ÎHÎ Ëıfi˛Ì±ı ·√¤√ 20 ‰Ê˝ «·ÎT›_. 1856 ‹Î_ ÷ıQ≤I› ’ÎQ›˘ ’»Ì ÀÎ≥‹ ÁÏ‰˝Áfi_ ¿Î‹ ÷ıfiÌ ’IfiÌ±ı ±Î√‚ «·ÎT›_. Ëıfi˛ÌfiÌ‹ÎŒ¿ ÷ıfiÌ ’IfiÌ ’HÎ ÿfl Á˘‹‰Îflı ’˘÷Îfi_ ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀfl ·≥ √˛ÌfiÏ‰« ‰ı‘ÂÎ‚ÎΩ› ±fiı I›Î_fiÌ CÎÏÕ›Î‚ ÁÎ◊ı Áı¿LÕ À< Áı¿LÕ Á‹› Ï‹·Î‰Ì ·_ÕfifiÎ 200…ıÀ·Î √˛ÎË¿˘fiı flÎ≥À ÀÎ≥‹fi_ ‰ı«ÎHÎ ¿flÌ ⁄ÿ·Î‹Î_ ±‹¿ ’ıLÁ ‹ı‚‰ı. Ëıfi˛ÌfiÌ’IfiÌ±ı 1892 Á‘Ì Ïfi›Ï‹÷ flÌ÷ı ±ı Ï⁄fiıÁ «Î·T›˘ ±fiı ’»Ì ’˘÷ÎfiÌ

ÿÌ¿flÌ w◊ Ëıfi˛Ìfiı ¿Îfl˘⁄Îfl Á˘ÓM›˘.Ï⁄fiıÁ ÁÎ◊ı Ëıfi˛ÌfiÎ ‰¬÷fi_ ±ı …ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀfl w◊fiı ‰ÎflÁÎ‹Î_ ‹Y›_. w◊fiÌ¿Î›˝’©Ï÷ ’HÎ ÷ıfiÎ_ ‹Î÷ÎÏ’÷Î ¿fl÷Î_…\ÿÌ fi Ë÷Ì. Á«˘À Á‹› ‰ı«‰ÎfiÎÏ⁄fiıÁ‹Î_ Ëıfi˛Ì ¬ÎfiÿÎfiı ¬ÎVÁÌfiÎ‹fiÎ ±fiı ’˛Ï÷WÃÎ ‹ı‚‰Ì Ë÷Ì, »÷Î_Ï⁄ÀfifiÎ_ ÷I¿Î·Ìfi ‰÷‹Îfi-’hÎ˘ ÷ı‹fiÎÏ⁄fiıÁ ±_√ı ±ΩHÎ Ë÷Î_.

±Î¬flı ‹Î«˝ 4, 1908 fiÎ Ïÿ‰Áıw◊ Ëıfi˛Ìfiı ’Ëı·Ì ‰¬÷ ±¬⁄ÎflÌ’˛ÏÁÏ© ‹‚Ì. w◊fiÎ ¿Î›˝fiı Ï⁄flÿÎ‰‰Îfi_÷˘ ⁄Î…\±ı flèÎ _, ’HÎ ÷ıfiı ‰¬˘ÕÌ¿Îœ‰Î‹Î_ ±ÎT›_. CÎıfl CÎıfl ŒflÌfiı Á‹›fi_“Ï‰÷flHÎ” ¿flÎ› ±ı ‰Î÷ ±¬⁄Îfl˘fiı›˘B› fi ·Î√Ì. ‰‚Ì ¿˘≥ ‹ÏË·ÎCÎfl¿Î‹‹Î_ T›V÷ flËı‰Îfiı ⁄ÿ·ı ‘_‘Î¿Ì›

√˛ÌfiÏ‰«fiÌ ‰ı‘ÂÎ‚ÎfiÎ ±Ï‘¿ÚkÎ ÀÎ≥‹-¿Ì’fl ’ÎÁı ’˘÷ÎfiÎ ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀflfi˘ ÀÎ≥‹-«ı¿ ¿flÎ‰Ì

flËı·Ì w◊fiÌ ±ˆÏ÷ËÎÏÁ¿ ÷Á‰Ìfl. ⁄ı¿√˛ÎµLÕ‹Î_ √˛ÌfiÏ‰«fiÌ CÎÏÕ›Î‚ ÿı¬Î› »ı

;fdfif jf[rfgffS+ o[Lziff o[Ldf,fl


’˛T≤ÏkÎ «·Î‰ı ±ı ’HÎ ÷ı‹fiı ¿Ã÷_Ë÷_. Ï⁄˛ÏÀÂ Áfl¿Îflı 1880 ‹Î_÷‹Î‹ ÿıÂ ‹ÎÀı VÀÎLÕÕÛ ÀÎ≥‹±’fiÎT›Î ’»Ì √˛ÌfiÏ‰«‰ı‘ÂÎ‚ÎfiÎ_ ÀÎ≥‹ ÏÁBfi·˘ÀıÏ·√˛ÎŒ ¶ÎflÎ ’˛ÁÎÏfl÷ ¿flÌÂ¿Î÷Î_ Ë˘› I›Îflı w◊ ËıfiÌ ÿıÂfiÎ·˘¿˘fiı Á‹› ‰ı«‰Î fiÌ¿‚ı ±ı„V◊Ï÷ ÷ı‹fiÎ ‹÷ı ›˘B› fi Ë÷Ì.±Î‹, Ï⁄˛ÀfifiÎ ·√¤√ ÿflı¿±¬⁄ÎflfiÌ w◊ ’fl ÷‰Î≥ µ÷flÌ.

‰ÎV÷‰‹Î _ ±¬⁄Îfl˘fiÎ’hÎ¿Îfl˘fiı w◊ Ëıfi˛Ì Ï‰w©¤Õ¿Î‰‰Î‹Î_ ±ÎT›Î Ë÷Î--±fiı÷ı ¿Î‹ FË˘fi ‰ı≥fi fiÎ‹fiÎ‹Î·ı÷Ωflı ¿›*. w◊ Ëıfi˛Ì ‹ÏË·ÎË˘‰Îfiı ¿ÎflHÎ ı √ ˛ÌfiÏ‰«fiÎÁ_«Î·¿˘±ı ÷ıfiÎ ’I›ı ÁËÎfi¤ÒÏ÷±fiı ’ZÎ’Î÷ ÿÎ¬T›Îfi˘ ±ÎZÎı’ ÷ıHÎı‹Ò¿Ì ±Î¬˘ ‹Î‹·˘ «√ÎT›˘ Ë÷˘.FË˘fi ‰ı≥fifiı ’ıÀ‹Î_ ÿ¬÷Ì ‰Î÷ Ωı ¿ı±¬⁄Îfl˘fiÎ K›Îfi ⁄ËÎfl Ë÷Ì. ±Î‹Î·ı÷Ωfl VÀÎLÕÕÛ ÀÎ≥‹ ¿o’fiÌfi˘

‹ÎÏ·¿ Ë÷˘, …ıfi_ ¬Îfi√Ì ÀıÏ·√˛ÎÏŒ¿fiıÀ‰¿Û ÀÎ≥‹ ÏÁBfi·˘ ’ÁÎÏfl÷ ¿fl÷_ Ë÷_.ÁıÓ¿Õ˘ √˛ÎË¿˘ ‘flÎ‰÷Ì w◊ Ëıfi˛Ì ÷ıfiÎ‘_‘Î‹Î_ w¿Î‰À ⁄fiÌ flËÌ Ë÷Ì. ±Î ‰Î÷◊˘ÕÎ Á‹› ’»Ì ⁄ËÎfl ±Î‰Ì I›Îflı±¬⁄Îfl˘fi˘ µ¤fl˘ ◊˘ÕÎ ‰¬÷‹Î_ ÂQ›˘.

ÿflQ›Îfi w◊ Ëıfi˛Ìfi˘ Ï⁄fiıÁ «Î·flèÎ˘. √˛ÌfiÏ‰«fiÎ_ ÀÎ≥‹ ÏÁBfi· ‹ÎÀıÀıÏ·√˛ÎŒfiÌ Á√‰Õ Ë÷Ì, ’HÎ ÷ıfi_ ΩıÕÎHÎ·ı‰Îfi_ ÁÎ‹ÎL› ·˘¿˘fiı ’˘ÁÎ÷_ fi Ë÷_.1924 ‹Î_ flıÏÕ±˘ ¶ÎflÎ ÀÎ≥‹ ÏÁBfi·fi_’˛ÁÎflHÎ Âw ◊›_ I›Îflı ‰‚Ì ±fiı¿ ŒÌÀ·Î_⁄Î ±ıÏfl±·‰Î‚Î ‰Î›fl·ıÁ ÁıÀ ‹ ÓCÎÎË÷Î, ’fl_÷ 1936 ’»Ì ÀıÏ·Œ˘fi Á·¤⁄L›Î ±fiı ÷ı‹fiÎ ¶ÎflÎ √ÌfiÏ‰«fi˘ Á‹›¿Îfi˘¿Îfi ΩHÎ‰Îfi_ Â@› ⁄L›_. ’ÏflHÎÎ‹ı⁄ÌΩ_ hÎHÎ ‰Ê˝ ’»Ì 1939 ‹Î_ w◊ËıfiÌ±ı ’˘÷Îfi˘ 100 ‰Ê ¿fl÷Î_ ‰‘ …fi˘

‰ÎflÁÎ√÷ Ï⁄fiıÁ Á‹ıÀÌ ·Ì‘˘. ±Î‹ı› ÷ı 86 ‰Ê˝fiÌ ™‹flı ’Ë Ó«Ì Ë÷Ì--±fiı »÷Î_ ±ı Á‹›ı ’HÎ ÷ıfiÌ ’ÎÁı ·√¤√ 50 √˛ÎË¿˘ Ë÷Î.

«Îfl ‰Ê˝ ⁄Îÿ w◊ Q≤I› ’Î‹Ì ±ı ÁÎ◊ı ÀÎ≥‹-¿ÌÏ’_√fiÌ ÷‰ÎflÌ¬fi_ ±ΩıÕ’˛¿flHÎ ±_÷ı Á‹ÎM÷ ◊›_. ±ı‰_ ’˛¿flHÎ ¿ı …ıfiı ÀÎ≥‹-¿ÌÏ’_√fiÌ ÷‰ÎflÌ¬‹Î_›˘B› V◊Îfi ¿ÿÌ ‹Y›_ fiÏË.á

w◊ Ëıfi˛Ì, Àı⁄· ’fl ‹Ò¿ı·Î ÷ıfiÎ ⁄ıÂÏ¿o‹÷Ì ø˘fi˘‹ÌÀfl ÁÎ◊ı

Q u e s t i o n s & A n s w e r sFactFinder


Why does a candle flame defy gravity and shoot upward?What will happen on lighting a candle in space, where there isno air and no gravity?

A candle cannot be lit in space, because without air (oxygen)even a matchstick cannot ignite. Still, assume that the candle is in aspace shuttle or space station where there is man-made atmosphere.Assume further that there is sufficient oxygen in that atmosphere.

Matchstick wil l certainly ignite and ifimmediately applied on the candlewick, it willalso burn but, soon it will go out. It will notcontinue to burn even if there is sufficientoxygen in the atmosphere of the space station.The reason is, in spite of oxygen in the air, thereis no force of gravity in space. When a candle islit on earth its flame heats up surrounding air.Hot air, due to its light weight travels upward,pulling the flame up with it. Heavier fresh air

moves in to replace the heated air near the burning wick. This ishow a constant supply of fresh oxygen keeps the flame burning.

However, in space, there is no difference between a light objectand a heavy. Cool air is not a whit heavier and the air heated by theflame is not lighter than the surrounding air. Therefore, heated airdoes not go up and does not make room for the heavier, fresh,oxygenated air. As oxygen in the air, surrounding the flame, getsused in combustion, the flame would go out!

What happens if amissile fired from theChandipur test range goesoff its course and headsinland rather than overthe Bay of Bengal?

As was done in the caseof Agni III, it is destroyed inthe air. The missiles aretracked by radar and whenone goes awry, a destructbutton at central control ispushed, triggering theexplosives aboard themissile. This safety devicedoes not always work. InDecember 1956, a runawaySnark missile went off thecourse and the destructbutton failed to work. The 21-metre missile probably landedin the Brazilian jungles. Rocketofficials point out that fatalaccidents are possible, but thechances are slim.

Which material is used for making capsules of medicine?

If it is not categorically stated on the label of medicine by themanufacturer one has to assume that gelatine is used for making capsule.

Gelatine is an animal product (non-vegetarian) Gelatine is manufacturedfrom collagen, a fibrous substance that joins bones, cartilage and tendon

(tissues that join muscles to bones) of cattle like cows and buffaloes. Someglycerine is added to make the capsule soft.

Another use of gelatine is in making jelly with which a scoop of ice-creamis sometimes ‘topped’, although many people are not aware of it. However,it is a different matter if the label states that jelly is made from vegetableproducts. This type of notice should be made compulsory by the government

in case of bakery products also.

FactFinder


How fast does a free falling object fall?

Objects move because a force is acting on them, pushing or pullingthem. They fall because the force of gravity pulls them towards Earth.Forces tend to make objects accelerate, and gravity is no exception.A tennis ball dropped over a high-rise building, for example,accelerates at roughly 32 feet per second per second. This meansthat each second the ball moves 32 feet per second faster than thesecond before. The ball is stationary at 0 feet per second. At the end

of 1 second, it istravelling at 32 feetper second. At theend of 2 seconds, itmoves at 64 feet persecond, at 3 seconds96 feet per secondand so on. In fact ,every second it travels32 feet per secondfaster. One of theimportant points tonote about fal l ingobjects is that howeverheavy they are, they allfall at the same rate.

The famous Italianscientist Galileo Galilei isreputed to have provedthis by dropping a heavycannon ball and a lightmusket ball at the sametime from high wall. Bothobjects arrived at theground at the same time.

Resistance of the air isthe main reason why someobjects fal l faster thanothers. A feather, forexample, f loats slowlydownwards because it has arelatively large surface forthe air to act on. A smooth,pointed bullet will fall fasterthan a feather because it cutscleanly through the air.Because of the air resistanceexperienced by all objects asthey fal l , the rate ofacceleration wil l always beslightly reduced. Only in vacuumare the figures quoted aboveexactly true.

Why do snakes have forkedtongues?

Snakes aredeaf andunable to hear

air-borne sounds.Instead, they detectvibrations on the

g r o u n d through theirbodies. A two-tip tongue enablessnakes to track other animals far moreaccurately by sweeping across trails leftby their quarry and gauging veryaccurately where they lead.

Snakes flick their tongues in and outincredibly quickly to taste the chemicalenvironment in front of them. The tonguetips sample the environmental chemicalsmostly from air, but also from the ground.Each individual t ip picks up odourmolecules and, when the tongue reacts,it delivers them to two chemosensorscalled eronasal organ through separateholes in the top of the palate. As long asboth tips are on the odour trail, the snakekeeps going straight. But , when thetongue diverts from the trail, the snakeveers in the opposite direction in order toput itself back on track. If neither of themis on the trail, the snake stops and wavesits head back and forth to pick up theodour again.

How many galaxies can be seen withan unaided eye?

In the northern hemisphere one canspot, at most, two galaxies—M31 andM33. The Andromeda galaxy, M31, is moreconspicuous. The other galaxy, M33 inconstellation Triangulum, is an extremelyfaint spiral that is oriented face-on towardEarth. M33 can only be located underexceptional conditions.

FactFinder


Does hot water freeze fasterthan cold water?

Evaporation is a large part of theanswer. In evaporation, molecules ofwater escape into the air as watervapour. It takes energy from themolecules to make this lap, so evenwhen water is heated to the boilingpoint i.e. 100 degrees, a little moreenergy is needed for molecules toleave the kettle as steam. Waterdoes not have to be boiling in order to vaporize. There are so manytrillions of molecules in just a small cupful that some of these willabsorb energy from their neighbors simply by chance and escapeinto the air. The remaining molecules become a little bit cooler.

In a pot of almost boiling water--say, 100 degrees--the moleculesdance in a heated frenzy. They are livelier than those in a 30 or 50degree cupful and are thus more apt to jump into the air. Within afew minutes, so many molecules will leave the water that it becomescooler than the cupful that was cooler to begin with. This is whyhotter water, if it is in a vessel with a wide opening, will freezefirst. But if the opening is narrow, vapour will have a hard timeescaping. Evaporation will be inhibited and the cooler water willfreeze first.

Many other factors also influence quicker freezing of hotter water.For example, hot water circulates more vigorously than cold. As aresult, more of it is brought to the surface, thus speeding the loss ofheat to the cool air. Also, the more water that is lost by evaporation,the less that is left behind to freeze.

What keeps a satellite circling earth?

The satellite’s orbital speed plus the pull of earth’s gravity. Thesame principle keeps earth and the other planets circling the sun--only in that case it is the sun’s gravity and the planets’ velocity thatkeep the planets in their orbits.

Our earth sails along the same invisible track century after centurybecause its velocity counterbalances the sun’s gravitational grip, orinward pull. The same thing happens to a man-made satellite-exceptthat it gradually loses speed as it sweeps through the earth’s thinatmosphere. When the speed of the artificial moon drops below28,900 kilometres per hour, the earth’s gravity wins the battle andpulls the satellite back to earth.

Is it true that a person’s heightincreases a little during night’s sleep?

Human being’s backbone consists of 26vertebrae which are held together byligaments and by a cushion-like substanceknown as inter vertebral discs. Ligamentsjoin one bone to the other. But the functionof cushion-like inter vertebral disc is toprevent two bones, one on the other, fromcolliding when a persons walks, runs, liftsweights or jumps. Due to the very natureof their functions, inter vertebral discscannot avoid being compressed. Thisresults in a person losing some heightduring the day. When he lies down for thenight’s rest, the pressure on these discseases. Each disc, made of a gel like semi-liquid substance regains its original size,resulting in slight increase in height.

Although soap cakes are available invarious colours like red, dark brown,green, pink etc; why is the lather ofsoap of any colour invariably white?

No substance has its own colour. Weperceive colour only when the white light,composed of different wavelengths is

absorbed, reflected or scattered on theirway to our eyes. For example, if a boardof laminate appears red, it means that itabsorbs all the colours of spectrum exceptred and reflects only red. Lather of soap isa large bunch of bubbles which are madeof very thin film of soap solution plus someair. Bubbles allow some light to passthrough them and scatteres the rest. If nospecific colour is reflected, we consider thisstate of colourlessness as white.

FactFinder


It is observed that a cockroacheasily foils a swipe at it andescapes. Which organ forewarns itabout the attack? How does it decidethe direction in which to escape?

This characteristic is shared by house-fly also. It is not easy to swipe a house-flyeither. However, nature has been partialto the cockroach and has sustained itsexistence for the last 35 crore years. Thespecies of cockroach evolved much earlierthan human beings. Throughout longevolutionary process, it has beendeveloping ability to survive in extremelyadverse conditions. So much so thatexposure to nuclear radiation following anuclear explosion, which would be fatalto human beings, animals and birds cannotharm a cockroach. Pesticide like DDT alsodoes not have much effect on this insect.The body of a cockroach survives for dayseven the head is cut-off. This repugnantinsect can feed on a variety of things fromsoap to leather. It can also do without foodfor up to two months. The cockroach’s bodyis so smooth and flat that it can slip into anarrow crevice for protection. Its body isalso very elastic . If one steps on itaccidentally, almost nothing happens! Thisinsect can withstand a weight up toseventy kilograms.

A female cockroach spawns many eggssufficient for the birth of 180 cockroachesin 303 days. Assuming that one half ofthese young ones are females, then inanother three hundred days the numberof cockroaches would go up to 27,270!

A cockroach flies with some difficultybut is a swift runner. It can identify threateasily. Nature has given cockroachmicroscopic hair on its body, which aredirectly connected with its central nervoussystem. (See microscopic picture given inthe right column.) These sensory hairsidentify wind direction. As a roll of a news-paper or a broom isswung down (or evenup) on cockroach, airswiftly flows toward it.Cockroach senses theapproaching air flow

and immediately runs away in the oppositedirection. A fly also employs same tactics;hence a racket-like fly swatter is used. This

plastic device has many rectangular holesthrough which air escapes. This venting not only

minimises the air pressure, but allows fly swatterto move quickly through air. By the time fly’s (or a

cockroach’s) natural ‘radar’ senses the attack, the target is hit!

Light from the sun is yellowish-white, so why does theatmosphere, which receives the light, appear blue?

Sunlight, before being bounced by the atmosphere, is actuallymade up of the light of all different colours. Each colour results froma certain wavelength of electromagnetic radiation: Blue from shorterwavelength, red from longer ones, and the rest of the rainbow fromwavelengths in between. White corresponds to no specificwavelength. Instead, it is the colour our eyes register when we seeall colours at once, as when we look at the sun.

But when we look at the atmosphere, we see light that has beenscattered by tiny atoms of oxygen and nitrogen--small evencompared with the minuscule wavelengths of light. Such tinyparticles tend to scatter short-wavelength light more strongly thanlong-wavelength light. Blue light, with a wavelength 30 percentshorter than red’s, is scattered five times more strongly. Hence, thesky appears blue. But at sunset, when sunlight passes through air

closer to the ground, it is more likely to encounter larger particles,such as dust. These particles scatter more light of longerwavelengths, so the evening sky often appears reddish. Waterdroplets, larger still than dust particles, scatter all wavelengthsof the light fairly equally--thus clouds appear white.

FactFinder


Why does the moon always present the same face to earth?

It appears to an observer onearth that the moon doesn’trotate—that is, spin on its axis—because we see the same side allthe time. Actually, the moonrotates on its axis at about thesame rate it revolves around earthand, as a consequence, keeps thesame familiar face turned towardus. Over the course of a year wereally see a little more than one-half of the moon, thanks to a slight wobbling motion which lets usview fifty-nine per cent of its surface.

The gravitational attraction of earth, tugging at the moon overmillions of years, has resulted in the moon’s keeping one side of itsface from us. When the moon was an infant—shortly after the birthof our solar system—its surface was extremely plastic, like a blob ofunhardened putty. In this primordial epoch the earth’s insistent pullof gravity raised a tidal bulge under the moon’s resilient skin and,as the moon spun on its axis, this great bulge was pulled across itssurface, slowing the moon’s spinning action. Over millions of yearsthis dragging force served as an efficient brake until finally one-half of the moon faced earth permanently.

Where and when was petroleum discovered first in India?

In 1828 an officer of East India Company was travelling in Assamfor his study on natural history. At one place named Borbil in Assam,he came across some puddles of petroleum, but did not pay muchattention to it, as his interest was confined to natural history only.Actually, petroleum was not discovered anywhere in the world yet.So, the officer did not even realise theimportance of his revolutionary discovery.

Many years later, in 1859, petroleum wasdiscovered in America. The British Indiangovernment then recollected the officer’syears old observation about black, muddyfluid he found in Borbil area, from hiswritings. A team of British researchers soonstarted exploration in areas around Borbil,prospecting for petroleum. At last, in 1889they found underground resources ofpetroleum. Assam Oil Company was formedthereafter. The company drilled India’s firstoil well on October 19, 1889. The well,labelled as ‘No.1’ was 200 metres (656 feet)in depth. However, the place where this oilwell was situated was yet to be named.

The discovery of petroleum deposit in

India was, indeed, great news for theentire country. To convey the news to all,Assam Oil Company published advertise-ments in newspapers and periodicals. (Seepicture below.) In some advertisements anAssamese baby elephant’s picture was also

printed. The baby elephantwas shown kneeling withfront legs folded and holdinga pointed iron bar in its trunkto dig an oil well in theground. The advertisementcarried the caption: ‘Dig Boy,Dig!’ As if cheering the babyelephant to dig heartily, thiscaption became very popular--so much so that the placewhere the oil well ‘No.1’ wasdrilled came to be known asDigboi! In 1901 the oilrefinery at Digboi commencedoil refining. FYI: World’s oldestrefinery is Assam’s Digboirefinery!

Why does the skin of a banana, keptin refrigerator, soon turn black?

Bananas being a tropical fruit do notwithstand cold climate. As long as they arenot ripe they are not affected by ‘frostbite’, but when they become ripe, oxidesare produced by a bio-chemical processcalled oxidation-reduction (redox). As theenzymes start oxidation, black patches areformed on the yellow banana skin. Thisbio-chemical process is fast enough tomake bananas rotten in few days. The onlyway to keep bananas fresh and tasteful isto isolate them from oxygen to the extentpossible. Therefore, the traders store themin godowns with abundant carbon dioxidein the air. Central Food Research Institute

at Mysore has invented inMarch, 1998, technology forreducing oxygen in godowns

and increasingshelf-life ofbananas up

to 45 days.

FactFinder


What are fingernails made of? Whydo they appear pink?

A lifeless, translucent outgrowth of skin,the fingernail appears pink because it liesover a bed of tissues that is rich in blood.It does not, however, grow from this bed.It originates in a matrix of specialised skincells that lie below the whitish half moon,that is visible at its base. Unlike the cellsof the translucent plate, those in the

matrix are very much alive, constantlygrowing and pushing the cells ahead ofthem toward the fingertip. As they emergefrom the matrix, the cells become filledwith a hard protein called keratin.

Unlike other skin cells, these highlykeratinised cells are not slought off whenthey die. Instead, they become compactinto the structure that we call a fingernail.The nail grows continuously. If it isremoved without damage to the matrixcells, a new nail will grow in its place.

What is a mirage and why does apond appear in the distance on a hothighway and then disappear beforeyou reach it?

The mirage is actually a thin layer ofhot air close to the surface of the road,heated by sunrays striking the ground. Thelayer need only be a few millimeters thickfor a mirage to occur. Light travels fasterin warm air than in cold, which has greaterdensity, so any light rays that approachthe hot layer at a low angle will be bentback up into the colder air above. Theshimmering appearance of this bent lightlooks like the reflecting surface of a pond.

The conditions most likely to produce a

mirage in the desert would be a layer of hot air lying immediatelyabove the ground with cooler air above it (this is quite usual duringthe day because the ground becomes so hot). Light rays from adistant object, e.g. a tree, would travel in a straight line through thecool air to an observer’s eye. But other light rays from the tree wouldtravel towards the ground and come in contact with the surface ofseparation between the cool and the hot air with their differentoptical densities. The rays which strike this surface very obliquely(at an angle greater than the critical angle) would be reflectedupwards again and thus reach the observer’s eye.

In this way the observer would see the distant tree not onlyupright but also inverted, as though mirrored in a pool of water.One can see a similar effect on heated roads during the summer.The reflection of the sky and clouds appears just above the surface

of the road as though mirrored in a pool of water. This is known asan inferior mirage.

As you approach the mirage, it begins to narrow and willultimately vanish. This is because the angle of your line of visionbecomes greater, whereas the hot air bends the light upward atonly a slight angle--not enough to make you see a reflection.

More spectacular mirages are the type sometimes seen at sea.They may take the form of a ship floating in the air, or the lights ofa distant city shining in the sky. The conditions needed to producethis kind of mirage (superior mirage) are exactly opposite to those

needed in the previous case. It requires a thick layer of cold air lyingabove the surface of the sea with warmer air above it. The light raysfrom the ship which travel upwards and strike the surface ofseparation between the cold and warm air at an angle greater thanthe critical angle are reflected back into the eyes of the distantobserver. In this way an observer may see a ship mirrored in thesky, though the actual ship may be out of sight, hidden by the curveof the Earth.


1An American named Willis Carrier,

whose photograph appears below, visitedthe printing press of his friend in NewYork in 1902. It was summer and theatmosphere was quite humid. Hence, thecolour ink on the paper not only tooklonger time to dry, but the moistureabsorbed by the paper changed its size

enough tocause dis-tortions inprinting. Beinga specialistm e c h a n i c a le n g i n e e r ,Wil lis Carrierstrived tosolve theproblem ofh u m i d i t y ,

though with little success. The break-through, when it came, was absolutelyprovidential. Once he saw the droplets ofmoisture on the aluminum pipe carryingcold water in a garden and a concept ofrevolutionary invention flashed to hismind. What did he eventually invent?

2One night in 1887, William Gray, an

American engineer (photograph on top,right) found himself in a difficult situation.His wife was critically ill and neededimmediate medical attention. He went toa nearby factory to call a doctor but thesupervisor there did not allow him to usethe telephone. Gray begged to let himmake just one call, but his pleas were of

From the earliest times to the present era, a host of inventionshave owed their birth to the ‘mom’ necessity. For some inventions,however, the situation had been the other way around, so that it wasthe necessity which found itself in the cradle rocked by the invention.The following super quiz tells the story of such curious inventions thatpreceded their application—rather half the story, because it is for youto furnish the other half by giving correct answers. Here goes...

Accidental Inventions

no avail. It was only after thesupervisor apprised his chief of thesituation that Gray was grantedpermission. Later, when theemergency blew over, Greywondered about the plight of manypeople like him who, in the midstof an emergency, were helpless inthe absence of any means ofcommunication. What was theimportant gadget that William Graywas inspired to invent after hisbitter experience?

3Robert Chesebrough, an American chemist, was in the

business of kerosene (distilled from coal) and had littlecause for worry til l petroleum was discovered in1859. To his despair, petroleum became cheaper asdays went by and his business became slack . Hevisited the first oil well in Pennsylvania (photo-graph on right) to assess the potential of a newbusiness he could possibly switch over to. He

observed the workersremoving a wax-likesubstance stuck on thedrill. He saw one of theworkers was applyingthis substance to hiswound. Even RobertChesebrough also cameto know that thesubstance worked likerecuperative ointmenton a burnt skin. Thislast observation madeby Chesebrough wasthe precursor of a newinvention. Which one?


4Eduard Benedictus, a French chemist,

was busy with certain experiments oneday in 1903. The shelves of his laboratorywere lined with many flasks and bottlescontaining different chemicals. One of theempty flasks slipped out of his hand andfell to the ground. Though the flask broke,Benedictus found to his surprise that thepieces of glass were not strewn on thefloor. They were still bunched together.It did not take long for this French chemistto unearth the mystery. After the liquiddrained out, the curdled liquid celluloseon the inner surface of the flask hadformed a transparent layer. What wasinvented as the direct outcome of thisincident?

5An electrician named Daniel O'Sullivan

lived in the Boston city of America in1910s. He had to visit many customersfrom morning till late night to checkelectric fuses, plugs, meters etc. Healways carried with him a rubber pad ofthe size of a doormat to protect himselffrom electric shock. But sometimes hewould forget to carry this pad with him.Daniel cracked this problem for his ownsafety, which proved to be a novelinvention, making everyday life easier formillions of people. Can you guess whatDaniel O’Sullivan came up with?

6Percy Spencer, an American radar

engineer, was testing anew radar one day in1942. This was hisroutine job. But astrange thing happenedon that day. Thechocolate milk bar in histrouser pocket suddenlybecame soft and after afew seconds meltedcompletely. PercySpencer (picture, onright) was perplexed to

begin with, but was delighted when he solved the mystery ofthis apparent miracle. He came up with a new invention in thesame year and got it patented. What was this invention?

7Here’s another invention which came about by a stroke of

luck. Roy Plunkett was a chemist with the American companyDu Pont in1938. Heconducted ane x p e r i m e n tfor which hefi l led al a b o r a t o r ytank with agas cal ledt e t r a f l u o -r o e th y l e n e .After sometime, RoyPlunkett (see,photograph onright) foundthat the gashad assumedthe form of a white lump. This new mysterious substance, apartfrom being very tough, did not stick on any other surface. Namethe substance, which is found in most kitchens today.

8Donald Duncan, an American trader, visited Philippines for

the first time in 1920. He saw some of the tribesmen huntingsmall animals, using a primitive weapon which Duncan had neverseen before. If it missed the target, the weapon, which was tiedto a string, would come back to the hunter. Seeing this weapon,Donald had a fancy of making a toy which might work in similarfashion. He could hardly have imagined that the toy would prove

to be a great business proposition. When Duncanintroduced the toy in the market, it was an instant hitwith the children and he had a brisk business. Namethis toy, which has retained its popularity till now.

9This one is about superconductivity. It is common

knowledge that the metal used in the electric wires,though a good conductor, resists the flow of electricityslightly. Such is known as conductor, meaning that it isneither non-conductor nor superconductor. If metals likesilver, copper, aluminum etc . are to be madesuperconductors, it is mandatory to keep them at a

Roy Plunkett


1Willis Carrier invented air conditioner, the first model of which

had pipes carrying chilled water. The moisture in the air stuck tothe outer surface of the pipes in the form of droplets whichdrained away, while the frigidly cold water reduced thetemperature of the room. A fan placed on the opposite side ofthe room propelled the humid air continuously towards the pipes.Another fan placed below the pipes shoved the cold and heavyair towards the ceiling from where it gradually settled down,lowering the room temperature. Finally, a single unit containingall these parts was made and it came to be known as the air-conditioner. It was only in 1927 that the Carrier EngineeringCorporation, a company promoted by Willis Carrier, beganmanufacturing home air conditioning units.

2William Gray invented the public telephone in 1891

in which the phone line is connected after inserting acoin in the slot. He acquired 23 patents for thisinvention. The American telephone companies, whichfound a new source of income in the publictelephones, were quick to increase their network anda revolutionary change was brought about in the fieldof communication.

3The ultimate form of this wax-like substance

developed by Robert Chesebrough is known asVaseline. He made this substance colourless andodourless. Although by definition Vaseline is nothing

but petroleumjelly, Chesebroughwas successful insel l ing it as afashionable item.By 1933, when hedied, Vaseline wasa household namethroughout theworld.

4The answer is transparently obvious.

The laminated glass was invented in thewake of this incident—rather accident. Inlaminated glass, a transparent celluloid

temperature of minus 273.5degrees Celsius. However, the Swissscientist Karl Muller and Germanphysicist Johannes Bednorzinvented a ceramic material in 1987which does not counter electricityat higher temperature. They wereawarded the Noble Prize for thisinvention in 1987. In what way wasthis invention accidental?

10A Swiss chemist, Dr. J. E. Brandenberger, stumbled upon an

invention worth billions of dollars on November 14, 1908. Inorder to make the texture of cotton cloth smooth and crisp, he

prepared a solutionof cellulose derivedfrom plants. Afterdipping the cloth inthis solution, hesubjected it to hightemperature andpassed it betweentwo pressurerollers. The resultwas nothing lessthan Eureka!, for

the new product he unwittingly inventedwas soon to go into mass production.What did he invent?

Answers

Karl Muller Johannes Bednorz

Volvo PV 44


plastic sheet is sandwiched between twolayers of glass. The laminated glass wasfirst used by the Volvo company ofSweden as a windshield for its model PV44 in the year 1944 (picture on page 43).Nowadays laminated glass windshield isan inevitable feature of all motor vehicles.If the windshield breaks, it still holds thepieces together which might otherwisecause grave injuries if they were to flyapart in all the directions.

5People in western countries used to

wear leather shoes in the beginning ofthe twentieth century. The cobblerswould insert a wooden layer abovethe sole of the shoes so as to saveon the leather. As a result, peoplewho had to walk a lot onthe stone- coveredfootpath experienced aslight thud in the soles oftheir feet as they stepped on the hardsurface. It so happend that in 1910, theidea of fitting shoes with rubber solesoccurred to Daniel O'Sullivan, who oftenwent for work leaving the rubber padbehind. After this modest improvisation,he experienced relief while walking. Itwas not long before that the idea waspicked up by the footwear industry. DanielO'Sullivan made this invention quiteunwittingly.

6Percy Spencer invented the microwave

oven. When his chocolate melted, heplaced a bowl of corn kernels beneath the

magnetron tube of the radar and the kernels started bursting.Spencer realized that the microwaves of the radar generatedenough heat to roast the raw kernels. The first microwave ovenfor kitchen was made in the year 1952.

7The substance--and you guessed it--goes by the brand name

Teflon. In fact, the name comes from the merciless tongue-twistertetrafluoroethylene. Du Pont acquired the patent rights for Teflonin 1939. However, as the Second World War broke out in thesame year, it was decided to keep the invention a closely guardedsecret so as to prevent the Germans from laying hands on it incase they emerged victorious in the war. A decade after the worldwar, a strange quality of Teflon came to the notice of a French

engineer Marc Gregoire, once again purely bychance. The year was 1954. To perfect his fishing

rods, he tried to encrust them with Tefloncoating--but in vain. Eventually and quiteaccidentally, he was successful in his attempts.And thus, the non-stick pan was invented.

8It is called yo-yo in English. Though not very

well-known in India, all of us recognize it. A string istied to the horizontal axis in the middle slot of yo-yo, whichlooks like the two folds of a grinding-mill. The string winds orunwinds by turn on the axis and it makes yo-yo slide upwards ordownwards.

9They were conducting experiments to invent a material which

might act as a superior non-conductor and not a superconductor.By a quirk of fate they chanced uponsomething that was quite the oppositeof what they were looking for. Butaccidents do happen--and as far asthey have a lot going for inventions,it’s just as well that they do.

10A transparent and thin

layer of cel lulose wasformed below the cottoncloth, which is currentlyknown as cellophane. The cellophane paper is usedfor packaging nowadays. The base material used forthe cello tape is also cellulose. Shown here is the firstcellulose tape ever made. The manufacturers nowproduce more than 100 kinds of cellophanes for

different purposes.


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ÏhÎ’ÒÀÌ ’ˆ¿Ì ¿‹ Áı ¿‹ ËıLÁfi ±fiı „VÀ_√Œı·˘ËÎ_ÁÌ’ÎhÎ ⁄fi‰Îfiı ·Î›¿ fi Ë÷Î. ⁄Lfiı …HÎÎ ⁄ÎË˘Â±ı„L…Ïfi±fl Ë÷Î ±fiı ‰jÎ˘ ‹ÎÀı ŒıÂfiı⁄·ÏÕÎ≥fi‰Î‚Ì Ï¿fiÎfl’|ÌfiÌ ›Îfiı lace/ŒÌ÷fiÌ ·Ò‹«·Î‰÷Î Ë÷Î. Ï⁄fiıÁ‹Î_ ÷ı‹fi_ K›Îfi ±˘»\_ Ë÷_,¿ı‹ ¿ı fi…fl ±Î¿ÎÂ ÷flŒ Ë÷Ì. 1831 ◊Ì „VÀ_√Œı·˘’ıÁıL…fl˘fi˘ ¤Îfl ¬‹Ì Â¿ı ±ı‰Î_ ⁄·Òfi˘ ’fl ±¬÷flÎ¿fl÷˘ Ë÷˘. ·Î_⁄Î ±fi¤‰ ⁄Îÿ ÷ıfiı ·ÎB›_ ¿ı Ë‰Î¿fl÷Î_ Ë‚‰_ fiÏË, ’HÎ ÷ıfiÎ ¿fl÷Î_ ¤Îflı ‰ÎËfi …±Î¿ÎÂÌ ’˛‰ÎÁ ‹ÎÀı ‰Ëı‰Îv ⁄fiı. ±ı¿ ‰Îfl’˘÷ÎfiÎ ‰¿ÛÂ˘’‹Î_ ¿ÎÕÛ ⁄˘ÕÛfi˘ À<¿Õ˘ ËıLÁfi÷flŒ ŒıÓ¿Ìfiı ÷ı ⁄˘S›˘ — “Ωı›_ ? …wflÌ’Î‰fl ‹‚ı ÷˘ √‹ı ÷ı Á’ÎÀ ‰V÷Ë‰Î‹Î_ À¿Ì flËı »ı !” ±˜fl˘M·ıfi⁄fiÎ‰‰ÎfiÌ ‹flÎÿı ±ı … ‰¬÷ı ⁄LfiıfiÎ_Ïÿ‹Î√‹Î_ ‹ÒÏ‚›Î_ fiÎ¬Ì ÿÌ‘Î_.

±Î¿ÎÂ‹Î_ Ï‰Ëfl÷Î ’ZÎÌfi_ ±fi¿flHÎ¿flÌ Â¿÷_ Ï‰‹Îfi Ωı ⁄fiÎ‰Ì Â¿Î› ÷˘ ÷ı«˘yÁ’HÎı √√fiÏ‰ËÎflÌ ⁄fiı ±ı‰_ ÷ı‹fiı ·ÎB›_.„VÀ_√Œı·˘ ±fiı ËıLÁfi ⁄_ÿÒ¿˘ ÁÎ◊ı ‰√ÕÎ‹Î_ fiÌ¿‚Ì ’ÕuÎ. Ï‰Ï‰‘ Ω÷fiÎ_±fiı¿ ’_¬ÌÕÎ_fiı ‰ŸK›Î_, ÿflı¿fiÎ ÂflÌflfiÌ ÷◊Î ’Î_¬˘fiÌ fl«fiÎ ÷’ÎÁÌ. ±_÷ı…_√·Ì ¿Î√Õ˘ ÷ı‹fiı ±fi¿flHÎ ‹ÎÀı ±ÎÿÂ˝ ·ÎB›˘, ’fl_÷ ÷ıfiÌ ’Î_¬˘fiÎ ŒŒÕÎÀfi_±˜fl˘ÕÎ›fiÎÏ‹@Á ÷ı±˘ ’Î‹Ì Â@›Î fiÏË. ›Î_ÏhÎ¿ ⁄‚ı ’Î_¬˘ ‰ŸfiÎw_ornithopter ¿Ëı‰Î÷_ ±˜fl˘M·ıfi ⁄fiÎ‰‰Îfi˘ ‹Ò‚ A›Î· ÷ı‹HÎı ’Õ÷˘ ‹Ò¿Ì ÿÌ‘˘.’˘÷ÎfiÎ Á_¤Ï‰÷ Ï‰‹Îfi ‹ÎÀı fixed-wing fl«fiÎ ÷ı‹HÎı ’Á_ÿ ¿flÌ, ±ıÀ·ıÏ‰‹Îfi ‹ÎÀı VÀÌ‹ ±ı„L…fi ±Ïfi‰Î›˝ ⁄L›_.

⁄ıµ Á_Â˘‘¿˘±ı À«Ò¿Õ<_ VÀÌ‹ ±ı„L…fi ⁄fiÎT›_, …ı ‹˘Õı· M·ıfi ‹ÎÀı Ë÷_.’˛›˘√ Á_÷˘Ê¿Îfl¿ flèÎ˘, ±ıÀ·ı ÷ı‹HÎı 80 Ï¿·˘‹ÌÀflfiÌ V’ÌÕı ’˛‰ÎÁ ¬ıÕı ±ı‰Î50 ‹ÌÀfl ·Î_⁄Ì ’Î_¬˘‰Î‚Î ±˜fl˘M·ıfifiÌ O·ÒÏ’˛LÀ ÷ˆ›Îfl ¿flÌ. ’ıÀLÀ ±Ï‘¿Îfl˘’HÎ ‹ı‚T›Î. ±ÎI‹Ï‰rÎÁ ¤fl±Î¿ÎÂı Ë÷˘, ‹ÎÀı M·ıfi ⁄fi÷Î ’Ëı·Î_ ±ıÏfl±·ÀˇÎ„LÀ ¿o’fiÌfiÎ ⁄ıfifl fiÌ«ı ±˜fl·Î≥LÁ ’HÎ V◊Î’Ì ÿÌ‘Ì. ÏÕÎ≥fi ‹…⁄M·ıfi‹Î_ ¿˘¿Ï’À Ë÷Ì, ·Î¿ÕÎfiÎ_ ⁄ı ’˛ ’ı·fl Ë÷Î_, Àı¿-±Î˜Œ ÷◊Î ·ı„LÕo√ ‹ÎÀı’ˆÕÎ_ Ë÷Î_ ±fiı ’ıÁıL…fl˘ ‹ÎÀı fiı÷flfiÌ ±ÎflÎ‹ÿÎ›¿ ⁄ıÃ¿˘ ’HÎ Ë÷Ì.

±Î M·ıfifi_ ⁄Î_‘¿Î‹ ËÎ◊ ‘fl÷Î ’Ëı·Î_ Ï‰Ï·›‹ ËıLÁfiı ±fiı FË˘fi„VÀ_√Œı·˘±ı ÷ıfiÌ Ï‹Ïfi ±ÎT≤ÏkÎ ’˛Î›˘Ï√¿ «¿ÎÁHÎÌ ‹ÎÀı ÷ˆ›Îfl ¿flÌ. (‰Ê˝I›Îflı 1848 fi_ Ë÷_.) Ï‰‹ÎfifiÎ VÀÌ‹ ±ı„L…fi‹Î_ flËı·_ „V’ÏflÀ ⁄fi˝fl 25Áı„LÀ‹ÌÀfl ·Î_⁄Î fi‚Î¿Îfl ⁄˘≥·flfiÎ ’ÎHÎÌfiı √fl‹ ¿flı ±fiı ‰flÎ‚ ’ıÿÎ ◊Î›±ıÀ·ı Ï’VÀfifi˘ ÿÎ_Õ˘ ·˘¬_ÕÌ «øfiı Á@›·fl ‹˘Âfi‹Î_ “«Î¿√Ï÷”±ı Œıfl‰Ì ⁄Lfiı’˛ ’ı·flfiı CÎÒ‹flÎ÷Î ¿flÌ ÿı ±ı Ω÷fiÌ fl«fiÎ ¿fl‰Î‹Î_ ±Î‰Ì Ë÷Ì. ±Î ‹Îfi‰flÏË÷Ï‰‹Îfi ¬flı¬fl ∂Õu_ ±fiı ¿ÿÎ« ¬ÎVÁ_ ∂Õu_ Ë˘÷, ’HÎ ±ı¿ ‹¿ÎfifiÌ ÿÌ‰Î·

ÁÎ◊ı À¿flÎ›Î ⁄Îÿ ÷ıfi˘’˛‰ÎÁ I›Î_ … ±À@›˘.

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⁄ËÎflfi˘ √HÎÎ÷˘ I›ÎflıÏ‰Ï·›‹ ËıLÁfiı ÷◊Î FË˘fi

„VÀˇ _√Œı·˘±ı …√÷fiÌ Á‰˝’˛◊‹’Î‰ÕÛ-Œ˚·Î≥À ›˘∞ ÿı¬ÎÕÌ Ë÷Ì.Ï‰‹ÎfifiÌ Â˘‘ ‹ÎÀı ÷ı‹HÎı ÏÿÂÎ ¬˘·ÌfiÎ¬Ì Ë÷Ì ±fiı flÎ≥À ⁄˛‘Á˝ ÁÏË÷fiÎ⁄‘Î Á_Â˘‘¿˘ ±ı ÏÿÂÎ‹Î_ ‹«Ì ’Õ‰ÎfiÎË÷Î. ËıLÁfi-„VÀˇ_√Nı·˘ »ı‰Àı ¤·Î≥…‰ÎfiÎ Ë÷Î. Ï‰‹Îfi›√fiÎ_ ‹_ÕÎHÎ¿flÎ‰Ì Â¿÷Ì Ï◊±flÌ ’fl‰Îfl ◊›Î ⁄Îÿ‹ÎhÎ ›˘B› ±ı„L…fi ¬ÒÀ÷_ Ë÷_. flÎ≥À⁄˛‘Á˝ ‹ÎÀı ±ı …ı‰_ Á·¤ ⁄L›_ ¿ı ÷fl÷‰ÌÁ‹Ì ÁÿÌfi_ …√÷ fi‰Î ›√‹Î_ ’‰ıU›_.

--±fiı »ıS·ı — Ï⁄˛ÀfifiÌ ≥„Q’Ïfl±·±˜fl‰ı ÷flÌ¿ı ±˘‚¬Î÷Ì ’Ëı·Ì≥LÀflfiıÂfi· ±˜fl·Î≥LÁı 1929 ‹Î_Ï⁄˛Àfi-À<-≥Ï…M÷fiÌ ±fiı Ï⁄˛Àfi-À<-¤Îfl÷fiÌ ’˛◊‹ ∂~›fi Áı‰Î Âw ¿flÌI›Îflı ’˘÷ÎfiÌ ΩËıfl¬⁄fl ‹ÎÀı ±ı …Ï«hÎ ±’fiÎT›_ ¿ı …ı “’L«” ÁÎ‹Ï›¿ıÏ‰Ï·›‹ ËıLÁfifiÌ ±fiı FË˘fi„VÀ_√Œı·˘fiÌ ‹Ω¿ ∂ÕÎ‰‰Î ‹ÎÀı »ÎM›_Ë÷_. ≥„Q’Ïfl±· ±˜fl‰ıfi_ ‰÷˝‹ÎfifiÎ‹— Ï⁄˛ÏÀÂ ±˜fl‰ı.á

±Î Ï«hÎ ËıLÁfi-„VÀ_√Œı·˘fiÎ

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‹˘Õı·fi˘ »ı. ±ı ‹˘Õı· ¿ı …ıHÎı

◊˘ÕÌ Ï‹ÏfiÀ˘fiÌ µÕÎfi ¤flÌ


(Continued from last cover page)

CURRENCY PRINTINGCURRENCY PRINTINGCURRENCY PRINTINGCURRENCY PRINTINGCURRENCY PRINTINGpurpose of curbing the menace of counterfeiting, so asto bolster people's sagging confidence in the federalcurrency. (It was only after the assassination ofPresident William McKinley in 1901, that the secretservice was entrusted with the additional responsibilityof the Presidential security.) The rogue's game was upwhen the secret service dismantled one of his machines.Neither were there anyprint rollers inside nor anydies or inks. In fact, noprinting was taking place.One gripper picked upsheets of blank paper fromthe feeder and merelypiled them inside.Moments later, anothergripper picked up andparcelled out genuine onedol lar notes that werealready stacked inside.Against a couple ofthousand dollars outlay forthe genuine notes thebrainy scoundrel hadcollected 20,000 dollars foreach machine. In duecourse, the secret serviceprosecuted him forcounterfeiting currencynotes. But in the court oflaw this con man pleadednot guilty on the groundthat no printing took placein his machines. The courthad to accept this defence,but the U.S. secret servicewas in no mood to relent.It unearthed evidences ofmany other misdeeds sothat ultimately he wassentenced to 40 years inthe formidable Cincinnatiprison where he diedbefore completing his term.

This incident took placeabout 75 years ago at atime when the U.S.Treasury Department hadjust adopted newly

invented offset printing technology to print currencynotes. The notes to print were further overprinted bygravure process. The engravers, working at snail's pace,were introducing much fineness and subtlety indesigning. Most patterns were printed with green inkwhich was impossible to capture on the photographicimages essential for offset printing. Besides, engraving

of extremely sharp lines on theprint plates for gravure printingwas beyond the capacity of thebest counterfeiters.

However, such attempts tothwart counterfeiting did nothingto discourage Hitler's Germanyduring the Second World War. Towreck Britain's economy, the Naziregime ordered Reich PrintingOffice (German security press) to

print the Brit ishcurrency on a largescale using the offsetand gravure printingmethods. About90,00,000 currencynotes of variousdenominations havingaggregate value of14,00,00,000 poundswere printed and putinto circulation invarious countries. Theprinting was so perfectthat Nazi government'simports worth

75,00,000 pounds from Portugal,Switzerland, Spain and Swedenwere paid for in phony money.These exporting countriesaccepted heaps of cash as ifgenuine. Additionally, notes worth15,00,000 pounds were palmedoff in Turkey, while notesaggregating 30,00,000 poundswere unloaded in the Frencheconomy. As a large proportion ofthese currency notes were of 5pound denomination they weresubjected to only cursoryinspection by the cashiers of

The first press employing intaglio printing processin Asia was installed at Dewas near Chamundeshwarihill, Madhya Pradesh in 1974. This Swiss machineryprints high value (Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000) notes incor-porating about half a dozen security features like fluo-rescent ink. First batch of notes having modern de-sign was printed there in March, 1975.

Department of Economic Affairs, Government ofIndia which gives final approval for thedesigns of currency notes often com-mits blunders in the matters of gen-eral knowledge. For example, it ap-proved the design of Rs. 1000 noteswhich depicted big-size harvester ma-chine which most of the farmers inIndia have never seen. The satellite isalso not Indian. In fact it is the pictureof American satel l i te named‘Fleetsatcom’ which is meant to relaythe order of the U.S. President to theUS Navy submarines to launch nuclearmissiles in the event of a nuclear war.

Currency notes are printed in fourgovernment presses, viz. India Secu-rity Press, Nashik; Currency Note Press, Nashik; Secu-rity Press, Hyderabad and Bank Note Press, Dewas.They are supplied to about 4,400 currency chests withdifferent banks for distribution throughout the coun-try. There are 3,700 small coin depots with thesebanks for distribution of coins of less than Re 1 value.

Designs of rupee notes are modified from time totime. Till some years ago, all the currency notes usedto have the national emblem (Ashoka Pillar) as themain image as well as the watermark. Currency notesof Rs. 500 bearing the watermark of national em-blem and the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi were firstprinted in 1987. Later it became a practice to printportrait of Gandhiji both as the main image and thewatermark.

FOR YOUR FACT FILE


ALL ABALL ABALL ABALL ABALL ABOUTOUTOUTOUTOUT::::: CURRENCY PRINTING

receiving banks. Luckily for Britain the war came to anend before still greater volume of fake notes couldinfiltrate its economy. Britain thereafter demonetized5 pound notes and replaced them with redesignedversion, which had a thin metallic thread sandwichedbetween two layers of the paper.

This was the first experiment of its kind. Since then,green ink that can not be captured distinctly by camera,background printed by offset method, overprinting bygravure process andsecurity thread are the fourfeatures which haveeffectively kept small-timecounterfeiters over theyears. (Incidentally, thesystem of watermarkingsecurity paper has been invogue since long.)However, these variedsecurity features proved tobe inadequate after theadvent of digital imagingtechnology in the 1970s.Not only was digital colourscanner able to register as many as 256 colour shadessome of which were used in printing genuine notes,but it also became possible to touch up broken or blurredlines through digital editing. The reproduction of thescanned image was made simple by high-tech laserprinters and ink jet printers. Next in line were suchcomputer operated paper cutting machines which couldcut fake notes in precise sizes.

Here’s a typical case illustrative of how such handyequipment can make even a non-pro’s task easy. In theU.S., a man named James Taftsiov printed counterfeitnotes totalling 12,00,000 dollars. All he had used tomake them was a 6,000 dollars Macintosh computer, a9,000 dollars high-end laser printerand a 600 dollars paper cutter havinginterface with the computer. Thedetectives of secret service whoarrested him later were amazed bythe high quality reproduction ofgenuine dol lars. As more suchinstances came to light the U.S.Bureau of Engraving and Printing,the government departmentresponsible for printing currency,was compelled to reinforce dollarnotes with more security features.

Many countries like India, U.K. andChina similarly went in for multiple

safeguards. Not only did they increase the number ofsecurity features, but also changed frequently thedesigns to remain one step ahead of the counterfeiters.

It is interesting to know the technological aspects ofeach protective feature in the context of our rupeenotes. As you read, keep a magnifying glass handy andexamine the specimen of 1,000 rupee note printed onthe last cover page.WWWWWaaaaatttttermarkermarkermarkermarkermark::::: To foil the counterfeiters, our rupee

notes are printed onsecurity paper made from25% linen and 75% cottoninstead of wood pulp. Inaddition, the paper iswatermarked to give itdistinct identity. The markhas no connection withwater expect that cottonand linen are convertedinto pulp in water. In thesecurity paper mil l atHoshangabad, M.P. thissoggy pulp is spread onfine wire mesh. Another

mesh having the watermark (See, Gandhiji’s portraitabove) is placed over it. About 90 metre long spread ofmesh is then passed between two rollers of a machineknown as fourdrinier. Pressure of the rollers squeezesout water from the pulp and simultaneous heattreatment dries the thin sheet of paper. In the water-marked area, the paper becomes somewhat thinner dueto pressure. As more rays of light pass through it, theimage becomes clearly visible when the paper is held upbefore the light. Though watermarking is not difficulttechnically, it can be done only in the paper mill duringthe manufacturing--a difficult task for counterfeiters. EngrEngrEngrEngrEngraaaaaving:ving:ving:ving:ving: To make replication of the main

patterns extremely difficult theplates of such designs are madeusing a process cal led lineengraving. This involvesnumerous lines almost invisibleto the naked eye. Masterengravers (see, photograph onthe left) cut intricate lines insteel plates using special chiselknown as burin. Some specialisein spidery scrollwork, some inthe contours of varyingthickness that make up theportraits. There are two factorswhich make engraving an



important security feature. (1) Thethinnest lines are generally lessthan 0.175 millimetres wide, whichmakes it extremely difficult tophotocopy them. As shown in thepicture here (extreme right), suchnotes appear smeared whenprinted. (2) Engravers produce avariety of cuts with an unbrokenline here and dotted line there.When the pattern is f inal lyengraved after six or eight months’effort it is so unique that not only acounterfeiter, but even the engraverhimself can not cut exactly thesame portrait again. FFFFFluorluorluorluorluoreeeeescscscscscenenenenent inkt inkt inkt inkt ink::::: Conventional printing inks are

never used for our currency notes. More than half adozen primary inks of different colours are made withspecific (and secret) proportions of various pigments.(Refer to the third cover page for some specimens ofinks.) Some chemicals are added in the ink to obtaindesired colour, e.g. chromium (yellow), molybdenum(orange), cadmium (red), iron (blue) etc. India SecurityPress at Dewas in M.P. also uses fluorescent ink forprinting the number panels of higher denominationnotes of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 which can not bephotocopied. This ink glistens deep red when the noteis held against ultraviolet lamp. O fO fO fO fO ff sef sef sef sef set pr int pr int pr int pr int pr int ing:t ing:t ing:t ing:t ing: The first stage in printing

currency notes is that of the background which is usuallydone with the offset method. The printing plate havingimage etched on it (and mounted on the cylinder ofthe printing machine) feels very smooth if one runs hisfinger on it. Yet when the plate is moistened duringthe print run its non-printing hydrophilic area attractswater whereas the printing area takes up ink, repellingwater. The plate’s image is transferred to rubber-coveredrollers that print the image on paper, one colour at atime. As shown in the diagram on the third coverbasically four colours viz. blue, yellow, magenta andblack are used, the combination of which produce manydifferent hues. However, some colours are speciallymanufactured togive distinctiveeffects in securityprinting. G rG rG rG rG raaaaa v u rv u rv u rv u rv u reeeee

pr inpr inpr inpr inpr int ing:t ing:t ing:t ing:t ing: After thebackground hasbeen printed, furtherimpressions are

taken through this technology. Most gravure cylindersare made by electro-mechanical engraving, wherecutting tools called styluses cut innumerable microscopicpits on the copper plate covering the cylinder. The pitsvary in size and depth and hold less or more inkaccordingly. The pressure roller makes the paper absorbthis ink and the pattern gets printed. The advantage ofgravure printing, besides reproduction of almostmicroscopic lines is that the uniform quality is sustainedeven after printing mil l ions of notes. Intricatelabyrinthine patterns in low value rupee notes aregenerally printed using gravure method. InInInInIntagliotagliotagliotagliotaglio::::: This technology is not dissimilar from

the gravure up to a certain extent. The presses spreada thick paste of ink onto the plate and then wipe thesurface clear, leaving the ink only in the engravedgrooves. It is in the degree of pressure that intaglio(pronounced intalyo) process differs from gravure.Whereas, light pressure is applied on the paper in thegravure, intaglio printing involves heavy pressure, upto 40 tons per square inch. (See the diagram on thethird cover page.) Paper is pressed so much that it isforced into the grooves. The trapped ink sticks to thepaper, forming a raised ridge. If you scratch a note youcan feel the ridges. Gandhiji’s portrait, national emblem,government’s guarantee, seal of the Reserve Bank ofIndia and the signature of its governor are printed thusin relief by intaglio process on Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000

notes. This kind of printing is impossibleto achieve with conventional presses. SecSecSecSecSecurity thrurity thrurity thrurity thrurity threeeeead:ad:ad:ad:ad: For more than

five decades, many countries have beenusing security thread as a securityfeature. The thread is embedded insecurity paper to discouragecounterfeiters from printing spuriouscurrency notes on bond paper of the kind

Original noOriginal noOriginal noOriginal noOriginal nottttteeeee DuplicaDuplicaDuplicaDuplicaDuplicattttte noe noe noe noe nottttteeeee

Burin, a type

of chisel



used for high quality letter pads. Thistechnique was modified by ReserveBank of India in October, 2000 to givestill greater protection to high valuenotes. As shown in the figure on theleft a silvery plastic thread is visibleonly at a few ‘windows’, so that itlooks l ike silvery stitches ofneedlework. Legends ‘RBI’ in Englishand ‘Bharat’ in Devnagari are clearlyseen on it. Additionally, figure ‘1000’is also printed on it if it is Rs. 1000note. The manufacture of paperbearing this kind of security threadis beyond the capacity of anaverage copycat. MicrMicrMicrMicrMicro leo leo leo leo lettttttttttering:ering:ering:ering:ering: Though this

security feature affords the maximumprotection against counterfeiting, many people havenot probably noticed it. As mentioned earlier, the bestway to deter the counterfeiting is to make its procedureas difficult as possible. Micro lettering has been adoptedfor that very purpose. The space between the portraitof Gandhiji and the vertical band on the right is printedwith micro-letters. Under magnifying glass legend ‘RBI’can be seen on Rs. 5 and Rs. 10 notes, whereas thesame initials with the figures 20, 50, 100, 500 etc. areprinted on the notes of the appropriate value. In caseof Rs. 1000 notes the lettering is almost microscopic.As these are high value notes, Reserve Bank of Indiahas made this security feature foolproof. On the otherhand micro lettering ‘RBI’ on low value Rs. 10 rupeenotes is printed in larger types. LaLaLaLaLatttttenenenenent image:t image:t image:t image:t image: RBI prints latent (hidden) image

of the denomination on the right of Gandhiji’s portrait.For example, figures 1000 or 500 can be seen if oneholds the respective notes slanted at an angle of 450

against the light. Otherwise this particular patternremains latent. Examination under microscope or apowerful magnifying glass reveals that intaglio printingof the pattern in the band is done by horizontal lineswhereas the latent image is formed by vertical lineswhich sets it apart. Duplicating this security feature isevidently a tough job. IdenIdenIdenIdenIdentificatificatificatificatification marktion marktion marktion marktion mark::::: All the currency notes of

more than Rs. 10 denomination have this attributeprimarily for the convenience of people having impairedvision. Nevertheless, as this identification mark is anintaglio feature its duplication also is difficult. Marksvary according to denominations. Rs. 1000 notes havediamond shaped dot, Rs. 500 notes have it roundshaped, whereas it is triangular on Rs. 100 notes. These

marks are in relief (i.e. raised) as they are printed byintaglio process.

The gist of the foregoing discussion is that only oneor two security features are not adequate enough todeter a counterfeiter in this era of hi-fi digital imagingand high-tech printing. The security features must bemanifold and diverse to compel the counterfeiter to seekrecourse to many different technologies which willultimately make his undertaking unviable in terms ofcomplexities and costs involved. Despite all this,counterfeit notes of crores rupees are circulating in oureconomy. What lies behind this scourge?

In a nutshell, two factors. First, various securityfeatures incorporated in rupee notes makes theircounterfeiting a task beyond the capacity of amateurs,but those engaged in counterfeiting our currency enjoyactive support of our malevolent neighbour. ThePakistan Government Press has installed state-of-the-art intaglio printing machines of De La Rue brand inPeshawar (and probably in Quetta also) and uses themto counterfit the Indian currency. Another reason forunabated counterfeiting of our currency notes is thateven the educated people lack awareness about thesecurity features indicative of genuine currency andhence fail to tell bad notes from good. Much of thephony currency goes undetected and remains incirculation, encouraging rogues to pump in more.

There are four major centres where this criminalconspiracy against India is concentrated. They areKarachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Lahore (see the map onthe third cover), although De La Rue’s printingmachinery is reportedly in Peshawar only. Thegovernment of Pakistan provides all the necessaryassistance to the counterfeiters while adroitly managingto remain out of the picture. It is for this reason thatphony rupee notes are not delivered to agents in Indiadirectly across the border. The consignments are sentto Nepal, Dubai and Bangladesh where the agentspurchase them for 50% of the denominated value andsmuggle them in our country through porous landborders with Bangladesh and Nepal as also viaSingapore, Colombo and Bangkok. This modus operandiensures that Pakistan remains beyond accusation. Yetthere is no denying the fact that high-qualityreproduction of rupee notes (mainly Rs. 500 andRs.1,000) would not have been possible withoutPakistan’s involvement.

Meanwhile, Reserve Bank of India is contemplatinga revamp of high value notes as well as incorporationof some new security features like coloured optical fiberand the year of printing, in yet another attempt to stayahead in the race.

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