Dr. S. Bhagavantam at IIT Madras, 1969

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Campus Facilities , Academic Facilities , Visiting VIPs

Dr. Suri Bhagavantam, the well-known visionary scientist, administrator and architect of defense research was the chief guest at IIT Madras’s sixth convocation. Prior to the proceedings of the sixth convocation, he visited the laboratories and workshop facilities in the Institute.

The wind tunnel in the photograph was a part of the Applied Mechanics Department and was located in the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory (One of the workshop-type laboratories). It was assembled by a team of German technicians and it was operational by the late 1960s. Technically, it is a low-speed closed circuit, open test section variant with a single fan variable speed DC motor Ward Leonard Drive.

The Applied Mechanics Department report published in Annual Report of IIT Madras 1969-70 notes that “The Wind Tunnel erection work including the calibration of the six component balance was completed.” From this information, we can gather that the wind tunnel was a fairly recent arrangement at the Institute when this photograph was taken. The wind tunnel was eventually dismantled some decades after it was put up.

Prof. Santhakumar Sundaram (Aeronautical Engineering Department) notes that he used to see parts of the wind tunnel lying outside the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory before it was assembled by the Germans. This was in the mid 1960s. “I have, as a student, seen some large steel shells like nozzle, collector, diffuser lying in the sun and rain just outside the large shutter of the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory just across the road from the Aeronautical Engineering Department.”

From left: Prof. S. Sampath (Deputy Director), Prof. A. Ramachandran (Director), Dr. S. Bhagavantam (chief guest and Scientific Adviser to the Minister of Defence, fourth from left) and Prof. R. G. Narayanamurthi (Head of Mechanical Engineering Department). The other persons in the photograph are yet to be identified.

An identical photograph can be found in the Central Photographic Section Collection in Album 0053 under the ID: 001/0053/IMG_1647_1

Collection:

Gourishankar Collection

Album Name:

Visit of Dr. S. Bhagavantam, 1969

Photograph ID:

001/0239/IMG_0058

Album ID:

0239

Date:

2 August 1969

Event:

Visit of Dr. S. Bhagavantam

Photographer:

C. Gourishankar (1926-2002). A geologist by qualification, Gourishankar started his career as a photographer after working for many years with the Geological Survey of India. In everything that he did, Gourishankar strove to achieve flawlessness and impeccable quality. Thus his photography too was characterised by this drive for perfection. Every photograph that Gourishankar took was meticulously planned and shot and printed with diligence and patience. Gourishankar carried out most of the official photography at IIT Madras in the 1960s.

Place:

Fluid Mechanics Laboratory