Issued by India

Issued on Dec 2, 2008

Issued for : India Post is proud to issue commemorative postage stamp on centenary of the discovery of Evershed Effect.

Credits :
Stamp & FDC : Suresh Kumar
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Mint condition

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 500 Paise

Stamps Printed : 0.4 Million

Printing Process : Wet–offset

Printer : Security Printing Press, Hyderabad

About : 

• Solar eclipse of 1868 and 1871 played a fundamentally significant role in the development of astrophysics in India. The idea to establish a modern observatory at a hill station took roots. Physics Observatory at Kodaikanal, was the outcome of such an idea and was founded in 1899, which started functioning in 1899. John Evershed, one of the foremost solar astronomers of his time, spent his most fruitful research years at the Solar Physics Observatory in Kodaikanal, first as its Assistant Director (1907-1911) and then as the Director (1911-1923). He had distinguished himself as a prolific amateur solar observer, working in his own private observatory in Kenley, England, recording no less than 13,458 prominences between the years 1890 and 1905, and noting the changes in heliographic latitude during a solar cycle. The Kodaikanal appointment was his first as a professional astronomer. When John Evershed arrived in 1906, Kodaikanal already had some good solar instruments including a Cambridge Spectroheliograph. With his expertise and experience as an instrument builder, Evershed was able to improve upon these instruments and look at the Sun with great clarity. He started working on the spectrum of sunspots soon after.
• In the early morning of January 5, 1909, on a day when the atmosphere was exceptionally steady and sky transparency was excellent, Evershed obtained Sunspot spectra which showed for the first time line displacements in the penumbral region indicating an outward radial flow of gases in the spots. Two days later, Evershed obtained more spectra which confirmed the discovery. The discovery has since been named after him and is known today as the Evershed Effect.
• Earlier studies had concentrated on spots near the central meridian of the Sun. Evershed was the first to observe spots at various positions, up to 50 degrees, on either side of the central meridian. He found that the line displacements were more pronounced in the penumbral regions of the spots which are closer to the limb of the Sun. This clearly showed that the flow of the gases was radially outward parallel to the surface of the Sun. Evershed‘s discovery is the forerunner of many important discoveries which connect the velocities and magnetic fields on the surface of the Sun, which has given rise to the entire field of solar magneto hydrodynamics. Evershed‘s work established the reputation of Kodaikanal as one of the best solar observatories in the world. In 1913, Evershed visited Kashmir for three months and found the observing conditions in the Kashmir Valley excellent for solar work. He established a temporary observatory near Srinagar in 1915-16 obtaining very high-quality photographs of prominences and sunspots.
• During the hundred years since Evershed‘s discovery, our understanding of the solar phenomena and the solar-terrestrial relations has grown enormously. It has profoundly influenced diverse fields of science and great benefits have been derived from these studies. Solar space missions have further enriched our knowledge of the complex processes taking place on the solar surface and their impact on the interplanetary space and our terrestrial environment.
• Text : As per the material provided by the proponent.

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Issued by India

Issued on Mar 31, 2005

Issued for : Department of Posts is happy to issue a definitive stamp on International Year of Physics under the 9^th Definitive Series.

Credit :
Stamp & FDC : Kamleshwar Singh
Cancellation : Alka sharma

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 500 Paise

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nashik

About : 

• The year 1905 marked a turning point in Physics with the publication of five papers on three major subjects by Albert Einstein, Special Theory of Relativity, Photoelectric Effect and Brownian Motion. These papers, published a century ago, changed our fundamental understanding of nature so much that 1905 is often referred to as the ‘Miracle Year’. In celebration of the centenary of these papers the year 2005 has been declared as the World or International Year of Physics.
• Special Theory of Relativity: Newton’s laws state that the velocity of light must change when someone moves while according to the theory of the origin of light (called electromagnetic theory) it should remain constant. Einstein assumed that the velocity of light was fundamental and could not be changed. He worked out how Newton’s laws must be changed to fit this basic fact. He showed that when objects move at a speed close to the speed of light (c), they behave very differently. Since the velocity of light is very large (about 3 lakh km per second), in our daily experiences, the difference is not noticeable. Einstein showed that if you move at velocities close to velocity of light, time appears to move slowly and distances appear to shrink. As one approaches the velocity of light, the extra energy given to increase its momentum (mass x velocity) does not increase its velocity, but increases its mass (inertia). This leads to the famous equation describing the relation between energy and mass, E = mc², where E is energy, m is the mass and c is the speed of light in free space (vacuum). This theory is critical to the working of a lot of physics at very high energy. This explains, for example why a moving clock appears to go slower than a stationary clock. Eleven years later, Einstein generalised this work into an even more profound theory called General Theory of Relativity. These physical laws are critical to the working of satellites used in navigation. It also explains why Newton’s theory cannot fully explain the path of planets around the Sun or why the light coming from stars is bent from its path when it comes close to the Sun.
• Photoelectric Effect: In this Nobel Prize winning work, Einstein studied how light can eject electrons from material. He showed that this can be understood only if we assume that light comes in small packets called photons. He showed that for photons to eject electrons from a material, they must have energy proportional to their frequency. Hence, even a large number of low energy photons will not eject electrons but a single high energy photon can eject an electron. This theory correctly explained the photoelectric effect. It also laid the basis for the Quantum Theory which revolutionised our understanding of nature. This physics is now routinely used in laser and several other applications like solar cells.
• Brownian Motion: This was the third subject that Einstein tackled in 1905. When he did this work, there was a lot of confusion about the nature of matter in the smallest scale. He investigated the observations of restless movement of pollen particles in water which had been first noted by a botanist Robert Brown. Einstein showed that this movement can be understood only as a continuous collision between water molecules and the pollens. It conclusively established that material is made of molecules and atoms. The theory of Brownian Motion is now routinely used to understand natural processes including the manner in which liquid and solid particles mix with each other. Understanding Brownian Motion is vital to everything from cell function to traffic flow, from models of ecologies to stock market.
• These three great pieces of work radically changed our views about the working of Nature. Together they established the existence of atoms, of photons as packets of energy and proved that Newton’s mechanics is only an approximation on the working of Nature. If we increase the energy of particles to the extent that they begin to move at velocities closer to the velocity of light, the Newton’s laws change so much that matter and energy become synonymous. The total effect of these pieces of work subsequently led to the quantum theory that explained how matter is stable. They also led to other great works of S Chandrasekhar who established the existence of Neutron Stars and Black holes. It also led S.N. Bose and Einstein to develop the Bose Einstein Statistics that fundamentally altered our view on how atoms interact with each other.
• In one single year i.e. 1905, Einstein changed our understanding of the fundamental laws of nature completely and even a hundred years later, we are still striving to grasp all the deep meanings of his work.
• Text : Based on the material provided by the proponent.

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Issued by India

Issued on Aug 20, 1997

Issued for : The Department of Posts is issuing this special postage stamp as a homage to Sir Ronald Ross, whose memory is cherished by mankind even after the lapse of one hundred years.

Credits :
Stamp design, FDC design : Director, Malaria Research Centre

Type : First Day Cover

Colour : Single Colour

Denomination : 200 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 Cms.

Printing size : 3.55 x 2.54 Cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Indigenous un w/m Adhesive Gravure Coated Stamp Paper in sheets size reels 47 cms.

Stamps Printed : 0.4 Million

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nasik

Name : Ronald Ross

Born on May 13, 1857 at Almora, North–Western Provinces, British India

Died on Sep 16, 1932 at London, United Kingdom

About : 

• Sir Ronald Ross (1857-1932) was born on 13^th May 1857 at Almora, a hill station in the state of Uttar Pradesh. His father Sir Campbell Ross was a General in the British Army posted in India. After completing his schooling in England he joined the St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in UK as a medical student. After winning enrolment as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1879, he joined the Indian Medical Service in 1881. He went on to train in bacteriology and to specialize in tropical diseases. Through his association with Sir Patrick Manson, a well-known specialist in tropical medicine with special interest in malaria, he was inspired to take up research to find out the process of transmission of malaria.
• On 20^th August 1897 in Secunderabad (A.P.) in a small laboratory, Ross made the discovery of the pigmented oocysts of the malaria parasite in what is now well known as the anopheles mosquito – Ross‘s ‘dapple-winged mosquito’. With this he solved the biggest puzzle in tropical medicine and demonstrated the mosquito transmission of malaria. On 28^th July 1898, Sir Manson announced Ross‘s result at the Edinburgh meeting of the British Medical Association.
• Evidence of his originality and genius abound in his work. He was the first to employ the counting of parasites in the assessment of the intensity of malarial infections, and the first to lay the foundation of the study of malarial communities. He drew attention to the importance of the ‘average enlarged spleen’ in malaria studies and was the first to employ the ‘thick film’ technique, now universally adopted.
• In 1901 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society and was awarded a Royal medal in 1909. In 1902 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine and he was knighted in 1911. Beginning from 1913 and until his death in 1932 he was editor of ‘Science Progress‘.
• The Indian Society of Parasitology is hosting its II-Global Meet on Parasitic Diseases to commemorate 100 years of the epoch making discovery of Sir Ronald Ross, who was undoubtedly one of the great figures in the history of mankind. The meet is being held from 18-22 August, 1997 in Secunderabad, the city which houses this laboratory where Sir Ronald Ross did his momentous work bringing succour for millions across the world.
• Text : Director, Malaria Research Centre.

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Issued by India

Issued on Feb 25, 1996

Issued for : As the next hundred years begin, the Department of Post pays tribute to those pioneers whose courage, ingenuity and entrepreneurship have made cardiac surgery an epitome of precision and sophistication.

Design : The stamp depicts towards the left the first ever successful suturing of a heart wound being performed. Towards the right it shows cardiac transplantation in progress.

The First Day cover depicts surgery in progress. The cancellation shows a scalpel and a heart.

Credits :
Stamp, FDC, Cancellation : Shri Suresh Kumar
Cancellation design : Dr. Amit Banerjee

Type : First Day Cover

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 500 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.65 x 2.55 cms.

Perforation : 13.5 x 13.5

Paper : Matt. Chromo

Number of stamps Printed : 0.6 Million

Number per issue sheet : 20

Printing Process : Photo Offset

Printer : Calcutta Security Printers, Kanpur

About : 

• The heart has always been the most revered organ in the human body and usually viewed as the seat of life. It has never failed to captivate the fascination of poets, philosophers, artists, litterateurs, clerics, sorcerers as well as scientists. However it had been considered surgically untouchable. Stephen Paget, a famous British surgeon, remarked in his textbook on surgery of the chest as late as in 1896, “Surgery of the heart has probably reached the limit set by nature to all surgery; no new method and no new discovery can overcome the natural difficulties that attend a wound of the heart“. The same year however, Ludwig Rehn of Frankfurt performed the first successful repair of a stab wound of the heart. The era of cardiac surgery had begun.
• The hundred years that followed witnessed the amazing saga of fathomless capabilities of the human spirit. It was a long road from modest repair of cardiac wounds to transplantation, and the milestones were legion. Even to name only a few is a formidable list of firsts: surgery on the aortic valve (1912) by Theodore Tuffier, Paris; surgery on the mitral valve (1923) by Elliot Cutter, Boston; systemic-pulmonary shunt for blue babies (1945) by Alfred Blalock, Baltimore; closure of atrial septal defect (1952) by John Lewis, Minnesota; valve substitute implantation (1952) by Charles Hufnagel, Georgetown; open heart operation (1953) by John Gibbon, Boston; totally implantable pacemaker (1959) by Ake Senning, Sweden; successful coronary artery bypass (1964) by Michael DeBakey, Houston; cardiac transplantation (1967) Christiaan Barnard, Cape Town.
• Over the subsequent three decades, phenomenal progress has been made in the fields of heart lung bypass and equipment required for the same, preservation of the cardiac tissues during surgery using hypothermia and pharmacological agents and also surgical intervention in patients belonging to all age groups. Currently, research is on for the correction of foetal defects within the mother’s womb. The quest for a perfect heart valve prosthesis has led to tremendous improvement in their design and function. Surgery for myocardial revascularisation saw several landmark innovations including the use of arterial grafts and recently, laser technology. Other areas where remarkable progress has been made are in the evolution of surgery for disturbance in cardiac rhythms, assist devices for the failing heart such as the intra-aortic balloon pump and amongst the most recent developments, the implantation of a total artificial heart.
• It is a matter of immense pride and satisfaction that cardiac surgery in India has progressed at par with the best amongst the rest of the world. In India, the first successful open heart operation was performed by Dr. Reeve H. Betts and Dr. N. Gopinath on July 6, 1959 at the Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore. The basic concept of transmyocardial revascularisation with the help of laser was first given to the world by Dr. P.K. Sen of Bombay who had also attempted the first cardiac transplantation in the country in 1969. The first successful heart transplant operation was performed at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi on August 3, 1994 by a team of doctors led by Prof. P. Venugopal.
• Credit : Indian Association of Cardiovascular Thoracic Surgeons.

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Issued by India

Issued on Nov 8, 1995

Issued for : The Department of Post today issues a stamp in honour of Roentgen to commemorate the 100^th years of his discovery. The FDC shows the world’s first – “official” X-Ray taken by Roentgen.

Courtesy : V.C. Nadkarni‘s report on the Indian Radiological & Imaging Association‘s Annual Congress at Bombay, published in the Sunday Review 29.1.95; Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Bombay.
Stamp Design : Suresh Kumar
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Multi Colour

Denomination : 600 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 x 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Imported un w/m Adhesive Gravure Coated Stamp Paper in sheets of size 53.5 x 50.8 cms.

Number of stamps Printed : 0.6 Million

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nasik

Name : Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen

Born on Mar 27, 1845 at Lennep, Rhine Province, German Confederation

Died on Feb 10, 1923 at Munich, Bavaria, Germany

About : 

• Wilhelm Conrad Von Roentgen was born on March 27, 1845, at Lennep, a village in Rhine district in Germany. The story of his life is an interesting study. A man who became a celebrity as a physicist, a prolific mathematics research scholar and a teacher of eminence was dismissed from the High School for a foolish prank and was refused permission to the University of Utrecht. He had to migrate to Switzerland for completing his university studies from Swiss Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich.
• He made the momentous discovery of “X-rays“ of Roentgen rays in November 1895, publishing his observations in an obscure local journal of Warzburg in January 1896. Thomas Alva Edison confirmed his findings shortly after the announcement adding prophetically :“Professor Roentgen probably does not draw one dollar profit from his discovery. He belongs to those pure scientists who study for pleasure and love to delve into the secrets of nature. After they have discovered something wonderful, someone else must come to look at it from the commercial point of view. This will also be the case with Roentgen’s discovery.“
• Radiology began with the static radiograph or X-ray discovered by Roentgen. It went on to derive knowledge from space exploration and war defence technology. It moved from vacuum tubes to transistors, printed circuits on silicon chips. Miniaturisation, telecommunication & fine detail television screens assisted its development.
• Today the field has opened up remarkably. Computerised tomography or CT-Scans have been developed independently by Nobel prize winning South African physicist Allan M. Cormack and British engineer, Sir George Hounsfield. Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Ultrasound and magnetic resonance imagery (MRI) have added startling facets to radiology.
• What Roentgen discovered a hundred years ago has gone from strength to strength. Following the first paper “On a new kind of Rays (Preliminary Communication)“, he published two more papers on the subject. In April 1900 Roentgen was appointed Professor of Physics and Director of the Physical Institute at the Ludwigo Maximilians University in Munich. In 1901 he received the first Nobel prize in Physics. He retired in 1920, and soon thereafter he breathed his last on February 10, 1921.

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Issued by India

Issued on Sep 28, 1995

Design : The stamp depicts Louis Pasteur at work originally depicted by Edelfelt (a Finnish painter) recreated in a charcoal sketch. The first day cover is a bronze statue of young Jupille, vaccinated against rabies by Pasteur. The statue by Truffaut stands in the Institut Pasteur, Paris.

Courtesy : Institut Pasteur, Paris, France for all materials of stamp, FDC and Write up.
Charcoal sketch : Sankha Samantha
Cancellation : Alka Sharma

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Colour : Two Colour

Denomination : 500 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.91 x 2.90 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Imported un w/m Adhesive Gravure Coated Stamp Paper in sheets of size 53.5 x 50.8 cms.

Numbers of stamps Printed : 0.6 Million

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printer : India Security Press, Nasik

Name : Louis Pasteur

Born on Dec 27, 1822 at Dole, France

Died on Sep 28, 1895 at Marnes–la–Coquette, France

About : 

• Over the course of 50 years Louis Pasteur’s discoveries revolutionised chemistry, agriculture, industry, medicine, surgery and hygiene. These discoveries also greatly changed the human condition, and his brilliance and rigorous methods advanced both science and its techniques. In the work of Pasteur, each discovery is a link in an uninterrupted chain, from molecular asymmetry to the prevention of rabies via fermentation, silkworm, wine and beer diseases, sterilization and virus/vaccines.
• In 1847 he formulated a fundamental law: asymmetry differentiates the organic world from the mineral world; in other words, molecular asymmetry is the mark of life. His work became the basis of a new science – stereochemistry (or three-dimensional chemistry).
• In studying fermentation, he demonstrated that each sort of fermentation is linked to the existence of a specific micro-organism, cultivating it in an appropriate, sterile medium. This is the basis of microbiology.
• Pasteur negated the doctrine of spontaneous generation; he also developed a theory on germs. At the same time, his discovery of anaerobic life paved the way for the study of germs of septicaemia and gangrene among other infections. Thanks to Pasteur, it became possible to devise techniques to kill microbes and to control contamination. Pasteur demonstrated that wine diseases are caused by microorganisms which could be killed by heating the wine to 55°C. Applied to beer and milk, this process called “Pasteurization” soon came into worldwide use.
• Pasteur’s study of silkworm diseases led to the discovery of the infectious agents and revealed transmission of these diseases and how to prevent them, an elaboration on his study of fermentation. He was able to confirm that each disease has its microbe and that the microbes are foreign elements. He established the basic rules of sterilization (asepsis) which became critical for surgery and obstetrics.
• From 1877 to 1887, Pasteur employed these bases of microbiology in the battle against infectious diseases. He went on to discover successively staphylococcus, streptococcus and pneumococcus.
• He discovered the method for the attenuation of virulent micro-organisms and then developed vaccines against chicken pox, cholera, anthrax and swine erysipelas. On July 6, 1885, for the first time, he tested his pioneering rabies treatment on man; the young Joseph Meister was saved.
• On March 1, 1886 Pasteur presented his result to the Academy of Sciences and called for the creation of a rabies vaccine centre. A huge international public drive for funds financed the construction of the Institut Pasteur. In accordance with Pasteur’s wishes, the Institute was founded as a clinic for rabies treatment, a research centre for infectious disease and a teaching institution, Louis Pasteur was then 66 years old. He went on to dedicate the last 7 years of his life to the Institute. His work was pursued and amplified by his disciples, The Pasteuriens.
• Pasteur’s work is not simply the sum of his discoveries. It is also the revolution of scientific methodology. Pasteur had superimposed two indisputable rules of modern research; the freedom of creative imagination obligatorily subjected to rigorous experimentation. Louis Pasteur was also a humanist, his goal always being the amelioration of the human condition. He was a free man who never hesitated to take issue with the prevailing yet false ideas of his time.

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Issued by India

Issued on Dec 29, 1989

Description of Designs : Designs for stamp and First Day Cover have been furnished by Oil India Ltd. Cancellation design is by Ms. Alka Sharma.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Single Colour

Denomination : 60 Paise

Overall size : 3.34 x 2.88 cms.

Printing size : 2.98 x 2.52 cms.

Perforation : 13 x 13

Paper : Indigenous un W/M P.G. Coated gummed stamp paper

Number Printed : 15,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 42

Printing Process : Photogravure

Printed : India Security Press

About : 

• The Indian Petroleum industry is completing hundred years in 1989 because oil in commercial quantities was discovered in Digboi, Assam, in 1889.
• Drilling was started at Digboi Well No. 1 in September 1989. The first gush of oil was struck a month later at 178 feet and in November 1890 the well was completed to a depth of 662 feet as an oil producer. A total of a thousand and one wells were drilled in Digboi. The oilfield, being operated by Oil India Limited, is still producing, making it perhaps the only continuously producing oilfield of this vintage in the world.
• Oil in the Digboi oilfield is in very shallow zones and sometimes seeps to the surface. The story of oil discovery in Digboi oilfield is quite interesting. An elephant working for the Assam Railways and Trading Company used to go through the jungles carrying logs. One day when the elephant returned to the camp, oil was noticed on its feet. His masters retraced the elephant’s steps into the forest and found bubbles of oil seeping from the ground. “Dig, boy dig!“ exclaimed the Englishman to his workers in his excitement on seeing the oil. Thus the name Digboi found a place in the petroleum history of India.
• The Petroleum industry has come a long way in these 100 years. Today, there is hardly any sector of the economy which is not directly or indirectly affected by the availability and prices of petroleum products. The crucial role of this industry in the economic life of the nation has led to a step up of activities in the petroleum sector in recent times. The country presently produces about 32 million tonnes of oil and 12,700 million cubic meters of natural gas per year. Together with imported crude the country’s 12 operating refineries process/refine about 50 million tonnes of crude oil per year. Additional capacity of about 12 million tonnes per year will be added when the refineries at Karnal, Mangalore and Assam are completed shortly.
• The oil sector provides for about 50% of the commercial energy needs of the country. With the same spirit of pioneerism that discovered Digboi Oilfield a hundred years ago, exploration efforts are being intensified, production of oil and gas being accelerated and a general improvement is being brought about to energy management systems.
• In the 100^th year of the Petroleum industry which coincide with the birth centenary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the oil sector was poised to execute the vision of Panditji in making India a progressive and developed nation-state of the world.
• Text : Courtesy Oil India Ltd.

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Issued by Pakistan

Issued on Mar 24, 1982

Issued for : The commemoration of one hundredth anniversary of the discovery of the tubercle bacillus should serve as an inspiration to the people everywhere to intensify the fight against tuberculosis. Pakistan Post Office is issuing a postage stamp of Re. 1/- denomination to commemorate the Centenary of the Discovery of TB bacillus.

Designer : Akhlaq Ahmed

Type : Stamp, Postal Used

Denomination : Re. 1/-

Colours : Yellow, blue, red and black

Size of stamp : 32.5 x 44.5 m.m.

Size of print : 28.5 x 40.5 m.m.

Perforation : 13 C

Quantity : 5,00,000

No. of stamps in one sheet : 50 (Fifty)

Process of Printing : Litho Offset

Printers : Pakistan Security Printing Corporation

About : 

• The year 1982 marks the centenary of the discovery of the tubercle bacillus by Robert Koch. The World Health Organization and International Union Against Tuberculosis join in celebrating this important scientific and humanitarian event.
• Robert Koch was born in Germany in 1843 and pursued a career in public health. He soon turned to research and perfected a number of important techniques of bacterial investigation. On the 24^th of March, 1982, he announced his monumental discovery of the tubercle bacillus which causes the killing disease known as tuberculosis. His discovery marked the first step towards the conquest of the disease.
• Though tuberculosis has declined rapidly in many developed countries, it still ranks among the major health problems of the world. It is estimated that each year about 3.5 million people develop tuberculosis and more than half a million die of it.
• Over the years effective techniques to prevent and stop the spread of the disease have been developed which are especially applicable to the situation in developing countries. With the discovery of powerful anti-TB drugs it has been made possible for patients to be treated at home, thus ending the need for santoria. The disease, it has been proved, can be defeated irrespective of its environment. Simplified technology as part of primary health care approach can save millions of lives.
• The Government of Pakistan is exploiting all its resources to eliminate tuberculosis from the country. However, active co-operation of the private sector and volunteer organisations is extremely necessary to eradicate this disease. Efforts are being made to coordinate the activities of TB Associations constituted at various levels in the country to expedite TB eradication. It is being ensured that TB patients should get proper treatment facilities and medicines. Diagnosis of tuberculosis cases by sputum tests and chest X-Rays was undertaken in all the districts of the country in the year 1980-81 during which 267,684 patients were subjected to detailed examination.
• For the prevention of the disease BCG vaccination campaign was launched as a part of Expanded Programme of Immunization and 33,317,824 children have been vaccinated in a year. Emphasis is also being laid on better hygienic conditions, education and persuasion of the masses to overcome this disease.
• Issued by : The Director General, Pakistan Post Office, Islamabad. 

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Issued by Australia

Issued on May 20, 1981

Designer : Finished art by Bruce Weatherhead, Melbourne, from the sketches of S. T. Gill

Type : Stamps, Postal Used

Colour : Multi colour

Denomination : 22 cents each

Size (incorporating perforations) : 26 mm x 37.5 mm

Printing Process and paper : Photolithography on 104 GSM litho chromo stamp paper incorporating luminescence

Printer : Asher & Co, Division of Leigh Mardon Pty Ltd, Melbourne

About : 

• Officially-recorded discoveries of gold in Australia date from as early as 1823. However, it was not until Edward Hargraves announced the finding of gold at Ophir, New South Wales, in 1851, that the rush for gold really began. Within months the rich Victorian gold fields also opened up and fortune seekers flooded into the country.
• Other Australian colonies also felt the effects of gold fever. Important discoveries were made at Gympie, Queensland, and the Kimberleys of Western Australia. Lesser finds in Tasmania kept the dreams of diggers alive.
• The last great discovery of The Gold Rush Era occurred in 1892-3 with the location of gold in the parched Western Australia desert areas of Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie. At these fields the diggers faced soaring temperatures, clouds of dust and flies in their quests for the precious metal.
• There are still some who seek gold in outback Australia, but the roaring days of the gold rushes have gone. Fortunately, our knowledge of life on the gold fields has been preserved through the drawings of contemporary gold field artists, the most famous of whom was Samuel Thomas Gill.

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Issued by India

Issued on Oct 21, 1979

Issued for : The Posts and Telegraphs Department feels privileged in honouring Thomas Alva Edison by issuing a special postage stamp commemorating the invention of electric light bulb by him one hundred years ago.

Type : Stamp, Mint Condition

Colour : Red purple

Denomination : 100 Paise

Overall size : 3.91 X 2.90 cms.

Printing size : 3.55 X 2.54 cms.

Perforation : 13 X 13

Watermark : Printed on unwatermarked adhesive stamp paper

Number printed : 20,00,000

Number per issue sheet : 35

Printing process : Photogravure

Designed and printed at : India Security Press

Name : Thomas Alva Edison

Born on Feb 11, 1847 at Milan, Ohio, United States

Died on Oct 18, 1931 at West Orange, New Jersey, United States

About : 

• Thomas Alva Edison, U.S. inventor, best known for his development of the phonograph and the incandescent lamp, was even more notable for the wide range of his interests.
• He was born in Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1847. He was experimenting for some time with what he called “electric lamp for giving light by incandescence“. On October 21, 1879, in his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, after spending more than $40000 in fruitless experiments, he finally succeeded in making an incandescent lamp in which a loop of carbonized cotton thread glowed in a vacuum glass bulb for more than 40 hours. He himself described the event as “the sight we had so long desired to see met our eyes“. The following decade was devoted to the invention and exploitation and methods for the generation and distribution of electricity, including the three-wire system.
• In his life time of 84 years (he died in 1931), he patented over 1030 inventions which changed our way of living. In 1883 he patented what became known as the “Edison effect“, the passage of electricity from a filament to a plate of metal inside an incandescent lamp globe (a forerunner of the electron tube).
• His invention of the electric bulb, in a way, revolutionalized the technical and social development of mankind. This small ubiquitous device which is so familiar today, is really a gift to the humanity by this great scientist, who worked hard to continuously improve its performance ever since its invention.
• In the course of years, the method of production of electric bulb has developed from manual techniques to a completely mechanical activity in order to cater to the ever increasing demand all over the world, and, as a result of it, a new great break-through was achieved in incandescent lamp technology with the halogen lamp having a luminous efficacy of 20 to 30 lumens per watt.
• In an indirect way, the incandescent lamp has been the motive power behind all further development in the industrial and domestic use of electricity. The fact that radio valves were derived originally from the incandescent lamp, confirms the origin of electronics and its later development as well. The electric lamp, without doubt, has brought ‘Light for everybody‘ and is still doing so!

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