Eugène Lafont

[2] After secondary studies in the Jesuit Collège de Sainte-Barbe in his town, in 1854 Lafont was received into the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, located in the former Norbertine Abbey of Tronchiennes in Ghent.

In 1859 the Superior General of the Society of Jesus entrusted the opening of a college for the native Catholics of West Bengal to the Jesuit Province of Belgium.

From that day forward, meteorological forecasts by Lafont were regularly published in the major weekly newspaper of Calcutta, the Indo-European Correspondence.

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 next year, a high level international scientific expedition visited Calcutta on its way to the nearby town of Midnapore in order to observe a very rare astronomical phenomenon: the passage of planet Venus before the sun.

His observations made him known internationally and the following year he easily obtained the financial help needed in order to build an astronomical observatory on the school grounds, equipped with the most modern telescope.

With the financial support of philanthropist Mahendra Lal Sircar, whose friend he was since 1869, Lafont founded in 1876 the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.

[5] When Bose discovered the 'wireless telegraphy' (at the source of radiophonic inventions) it is Lafont who made in Calcutta (1897) a public demonstration of this discovery.

As the Catholic Church at that time had a very negative image in the world of science, Lafont had to give an account of himself before scientists who expressed surprise.