Scientific Lectures
As soon as he was at ease in English (1870) Lafont began to give scientific lectures for the general public: he had a particular gift in popularizing scientific knowledge. All the new scientific discoveries and inventions of the second half of the 19th century were thus made known, always with empirical evidence. So was it of the magic lantern, the telephone, phonograph, the X-rays, photography, etc. Through contacts the science enthusiast had brought from Europe the most modern scientific tools, such as the meteograph of Angelo Secchi (Meteorology remained his favourite field of activity). The lectures had a huge success and came to an end only with the departure of Lafont for Darjeeling, a few months before his death of Lafont, in 1908.
A the time Lafont was rector of St. Xavier’s College (1874) a high level international scientific expedition visited Calcutta on its way to Midnapore (a town south-west of Calcutta) in order to observe a very rare astronomical phenomenon: the passage of planet Venus before the Sun. Lafont joined the group. His perspicacious observations made him known internationally and he obtained without difficulty the financial help needed in order to build on the college’s premises an astronomical observatory equipped with the most modern telescope (1875).
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“A nap, my friend, is a brief period of sleep which overtakes superannuated persons when they endeavour to entertain unwelcome visitors or to listen to scientific lectures.”
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