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According to a senior professor, this photograph shows one end of the Bangalore Wind Tunnel with honeycomb, which still exists in the laboratory. From the information we gathered, we learned that it was first designed as a Diffuser Test Bench by Mr. Mathew, who was the first Ph.D. scholar of the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory under the supervision of Prof. Klein. According to our source, it was used somewhere between the years 1968-1973. It apparently used to make a lot of noise, even making the entire laboratory vibrate! After Mathew, Prof. Lakshminarasimhan, used the facility for his MS and Ph.…

This device is most likely a part of the Acoustic Facility specially designed by Prof. B. V. A. Rao to generate high intensity noise (160-180 dB) to test the first SLV-3 rockets developed at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum before the launch. Acoustic Horns were used for this purpose. It was one of the most challenging and dangerous projects undertaken by IIT Madras.

According to a senior professor, this is a roof shell model which was tested in the Big Tunnel, also known as the Gottingen Tunnel, “to get wind pressure distribution and the total wind loads for various directions of the wind.” This photograph was found in an envelope among other photographs given to us as part of the Gourishankar Collection. The envelope came with minimum details about the photographs in the album. However, information suggests that it was taken at the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory. If you know any details or information about this photograph, please reach out to us.

This device is most likely a part of the Acoustic Facility specially designed by Prof. B. V. A. Rao to generate high intensity noise (160-180 dB) to test the first SLV-3 rockets developed at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Trivandrum before the launch. Acoustic Horns were used for this purpose. It was one of the most challenging and dangerous projects undertaken by IIT Madras.

In the 1960s, the Applied Mechanics Department of IIT Madras had a wind tunnel among its facilities. German technicians came to the Institute to assemble the tunnel which became functional in the late 1960s. It was used for industry work (smoke nuisance) and laboratory work for a few years. The wind tunnel was eventually dismantled some decades after it was put up. The person in the image has been identified as Mr. G. Srinivasan (a staff member) by Prof. P. A. Aswatha Narayana (Department of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering). SS State of Bombay was one of the ships…

Seen in the image second from left is Prof. S. Sampath (Deputy Director) and fourth from left is Prof. B. Sengupto (Director).

The Building Sciences Block (BSB) was the first administrative and departmental building to be completed on the IIT Madras campus. It was completed in August 1961. It housed the administrative offices, Director’s office and the Senate Hall until 1968, after which the current Administration Block was built and brought into use. According to the Convocation Brochure of 1966, the laying of the foundation of the first building of the Institute, the Building Sciences Block, commenced in October 1959. The Convocation Brochure reports a shortage of building materials, especially steel during the…

The year the championship was won and the people in the images are yet to be identified. The Heritage Centre would be grateful to receive any information about the image. 

Construction of the Central Workshops was completed in June 1961. The Workshops were one of the first constructions to come up on campus. The idea behind the Central Workshops was to provide students with a practical knowledge of subjects in engineering that they were studying in classes. In this way, they would not only be theoretically sound, but also practically so.

The students seen in the image are possibly students at the schools Kendriya Vidyalaya (Central School) or Vanavani School that are both situated within the IIT Madras campus. 

The event and people in the image are unknown. If you have information regarding the details of the image please contact us at the Heritage Centre.

From left, Prof. S. Sampath (Deputy Director), Prof. A. Ramachandran (Director), Dr. Vikram A. Sarabhai (chief guest and Head, Atomic Energy Commission), Dr. A. L. Mudaliar (Chairman, Board of Governors) and Mr. C. V. Sethunathan (Registrar). Dr. Mudaliar appears to be signing the register of degrees conferred.  

IIT Madras is home to a large variety of flora and fauna. Spotted Deer, Blackbuck, Monkeys, Mongooses, Jackal, snakes and birds are seen in large numbers on the campus.  Seen in the image is a cobra in the hands of a snake catcher.

This was the first time that the Inter-IIT Sports Meet was held at IIT Madras. The chief guest Mansoor Ali Khan also inaugurated the stadium at the start of the meet. In the Seventh Annual Number of IIT Madras (1965-1966), R. Natarajan wrote an article titled ‘The Royal Tiger from Pataudi’, in which he praises Mansoor Ali Khan’s captaincy, “There is something that has always stood out about Pataudi. As captain, he brought a fresh and uninhibited approach to the game and took the slightest gamble, if only to infuse some spirit and the dash of a derring-do to the languishing game of today.”…

Mansoor Ali Khan was the chief guest at the Third Inter-IIT Sports Meet. He inaugurated the stadium and declared the meet open.  Nawab Mohammad Mansoor Ali Khan Siddiqui Pataudi captained the Indian cricket team from when he was 21 years of age. He was given the nickname ‘Tiger Pataudi’ owing to his exceptional fielding skills. He notes in his autobiography, "I had a tigerish propensity for crawling energetically about the floor on all fours." The captain formerly played for Winchester College, even breaking the school's earlier record for most runs in a season. Speaking of records,…