How did Raman discover the Raman effect?
In 1921, Raman had traveled to Europe from his home in Calcutta to attend the Congress of Universities of the British Empire at Oxford. While he was there, he conducted some acoustic research on the central gallery of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. He also met with three outstanding British physicists: Joseph J. Thompson, Ernest Rutherford and William H. Bragg. He lectured to the Physical Society on his research in acoustics and optics. But it was his trip home that would lead Raman to change history. During his sea voyage, he observed the blue opalescence of the Mediterranean and wondered about the origin of this beautiful phenomenon. Raman was aware of Lord Rayleigh’s explanation—that the color of the sea was due to the reflection of the blue sky—but he did not accept it. So, with a polarizing Nicol quartz prism that he carried in his pocket, he proceeded to demonstrate Rayleigh’s explanation to be false; he quenched the surface reflection of the sky on the sea surface, and noted th
