Seebchunder Nandy or Sib Chandra Nundy (June 1824 – 6 April 1903) was an Indian

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

telegraphy official who worked on the first telegraph lines established in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. He helped install and maintain the first telegraph lines between

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...

and Calcutta using innovative approaches to reduce the cost of installation. Palm tree posts

Born in a family of modest means in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, he worked at the refinery of the Calcutta Mint from 1846 under

William Brooke O'Shaughnessy Sir William Brooke O'Shaughnessy (from 1861 as William O'Shaughnessy Brooke) MD FRS (October 1809, in Limerick, Ireland – 8 January 1889, in Southsea, England) was an Irish physician famous for his wide-ranging scientific work in pharmacology, ...

. When O'Shaughnessy started working on the first telegraphic line in India, he made use of Nandy as his assistant. Nandy tested the first line signalling from

Diamond Harbour Diamond Harbour () is a town and a municipality of the South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is situated on the eastern banks of the Hooghly River. It is the headquarters of the Diamond Harbour subdivision. Histor ...

to O'Shaughnessy in Calcutta in a demonstration made to

Lord Dalhousie James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie (22 April 1812 – 19 December 1860), also known as Lord Dalhousie, styled Lord Ramsay until 1838 and known as The Earl of Dalhousie between 1838 and 1849, was a Scottish statesman and co ...

. Nandy later became a line inspector in charge of training signallers. In 1866 he became an assistant superintendent and just before retiring the next year he was given the title of

Rai Bahadur RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (Italy), Ministry of Eco ...

on 28 February 1883. Among Nandy's achievements was in the low-cost installation of lines. Using fishing boats he helped lay 7 miles of underwater cable across the river Padma at a very low cost. He also used palm trees as posts when he was given charge to lay down 900 miles through East Barrakur-Allahabad, Banares-Mirzapur-Seonee, and Calcutta to Dacca. The palm tree as a post was later incorporated into the telegraphy manual. He also served as a treasurer for the

Asiatic Society of Bengal The Asiatic Society is a government of India organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of "Oriental research", in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions. It was founded by the p ...

in 1849-50. He was given a special mention in Sir

Roper Lethbridge Sir Roper Lethbridge (23 December 1840 – 15 February 1919) was a British academic and civil servant in India and a Conservative Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1892. Early life and education Lethbridge was the s ...

's ''The Golden Book of India'' for his services during the mutiny of 1857. On 19 April 1902 he was present at the opening of the Mutiny Telegraph Memorial. He died of plague on 6 April 1903 during an epidemic in Calcutta and the local Telegraph Office was closed for the day.

Legacy

A lane at

Burrabazar Burrabazar (also spelt ''Bara Bazar'') is a neighbourhood of Central-North Kolkata, in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Bazar Kolkata In between Sutanuti haat made way for Bazar Kolkata, some time in the 18th century. The ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

was named after him in 1904 as Shib Nandi Lane.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nancy, Seeb Chunder People from Kolkata Telegraphists 1824 births 1903 deaths Indian engineers Bengali people Engineers from West Bengal