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Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain peak. It is one of the Himalayas' 79 peaks! A Bengali computer named Radhanath Sikdar measured its height, and that without ever having climbed Mount Everest! How did he accomplish such a huge feat?
Height of Mt. Everest
Radhanath Sikdar was born in Bengal in 1813. He attended a local school due to budgetary concerns. He received a scholarship because of his outstanding mind. He got enrolled in Hindu College, Calcutta in 1824, presently known as Presidency College. In 1830, he began receiving instruction from famous mathematician John Tytler here. Radhanath was regarded as a genius by John Tytler, who recommended him to George Everest.
Computers and calculators were not created in the nineteenth century. A computer back then was referred a person who used his intellect to perform sophisticated computations at the time. Radhanath was chosen for GTS (Great Trigonometrical Survey of India) under Everest's leadership on December 19, 1831. Radhanath was just 19 years old when he was hired as a computer technician for 30 rupees a month. Radhanath was elevated to a chief computer after years of working on the GTS project due to his excellent thinking. He was also named as the Meteorological Department's supervisor.
Colonel Andrew Scott Waugh took over after George Everest resigned and ordered Radhanath to measure the heights of mountain summits. Radhanath faced a difficult challenge. Radhanath, a genius, utilised basic geometric principles and a massive Telescope-like apparatus called a theodolite to estimate the heights of mountain summits.
A Theodolite may now be carried in a person's bag. But back then, a Theodolite weighed about 1000 pounds or 450 kilograms! Lifting it would require the strength of at least 12 men. Radhanath surveyed peak 15 with this theodolite, obtaining data from six separate sites.
Entry was prohibited in specific regions surrounding Peak 15 at the time. Every survey location was more than 100 Kilometers from the mountain's crest. Mirzapur, Jarol, Janjipati, Ladonia, Harpur, and Minai had the highest average height. With the assistance of these towers, peak 15's triangulation began by measuring the peak's height from sea level. Many scientists, historians, and professionals have examined Radhanath's unusual technique in the following ways.
Consider the following two locations: A and B. Radhanath spotted location A first first to determine the angle because the distance between the two places was previously established. He positioned the theodolite at peak15 and took a reading. He then turned the theodolite to spot B and recorded the reading. He recorded the angle A reading in this manner. He then travelled to spot B and did the same thing. He discovered angle B in this manner.
He utilised triangulation and trigonometry to determine the height of peak 15 after recording the distance between the two places and the measurements of the two angles. He collected data from all places in this manner.
For the following four years, he utilised the method of minimum squares, method of averages, trigonometric calculations, and many of his ways, until one morning in 1852, Radhanath went into Colonel Waugh's bed and said that he had located the world's tallest peak. Radhanath measured Peak 15 at 29,000 feet.
This finding pushed Kanchenjunga, the tallest mountain at the time, to second place. Mount Kanchenjunga had a height of 28,169 feet. Radhanath discovered that Mountain 15 is the highest peak in the world after comparing it to all other summits.
In 1852, Sikdar measured Peak 15. Waugh, however, had to wait four years for his results to be confirmed. After evaluating all of the experts, Waugh added two feet to Radhanath's estimations and approved his conclusions. In 1856, he announced the results to the world. Colonel Waugh saw George Everest as his mentor and named Peak 15 after him, even though he had never seen it. As a result, Peak 15 was given the moniker Mount Everest.
Peak 15 might never have been recognised if Radhanath had not laboured tirelessly to discover it. Radhanath was never given credit for this outstanding achievement by the British. Radhanath Sikdar wrote the technical and mathematical parts of one of the British survey manuals published in 1891. This guidebook was extremely beneficial to other surveyors. Sikdar was elected to the Philosophical Society of Germany in 1864 for his unique contribution. He was the first Indian to receive this distinction. Radhanath died in May 1870, and his name was no longer included in later versions of the survey guides. Radhanath was therefore condemned to obscurity.
Many poets, historians, and scientists afterwards attempted to discover the link between Mount Everest and Sikdar. They ran many articles on him. In 1948, ninety-six years after his discovery, an unassuming road in Chandar Nagar, Bengal, was named after him. His statue was erected there. After 152 years, the government of India released a postal stamp honouring Radhanath Sikdar in 2004. In the twenty-first century, science has advanced by leaps and bounds, and we have already arrived on Mars. If Radhanath had lived today, he would have brought India to new heights.
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