If someone were to ask me what is so special in your city that is nowhere else? So I remember one building and one Urdu shared
The ruins are showing that these ruins would be a great building in its time. And that building is the only surviving Solarium in the world in our city.
In the late nineteenth century, scientists began to understand the importance of sun rays in human life. While studying the importance of sunlight for human health, it was found that sunlight can positively affect mental and physical health besides being vitamin D in the human body. And the branch of heliotherapy (treating patients with sunlight) developed. It started studying and treating other ailments including skin, cancer, bone and tuberculosis.
Dr. Jean Seidman, president of the Institute of Etiology (Visual Light and Ultra Violet Radiation Studies) in Paris, did extensive work in this field and validated the special treatment system. He was born in Romania in the sun. He came to France as a teenager and studied medicine and contributed to research in the field of Actinology. He designed the “Rotating Solarium” and filed his patent in order to make ultraviolet light treatment better in Sun 2. His work was contributed by his friend and architect, Andre Andre Ford, and the world’s first rotating Solarium was built in Savoy Alps, France. Built by architect Andre Forde, the building features a tall platform that can be built on a high, wide, and vertical base. In the base of the building was a waiting room, a room for doctors to examine patients, a lift and a spiral staircase. At the center of the horizontal platform at the top of the tower was a monitoring and control room that operated a platform of 114feet-long and 18 feet-wide with electricity and rotating with the speed and direction of the sun. The rotation of the Solarium was done by electronic motor. If the power supply fails, there was a pivoting system in the basement of the Solarium, through which only one person could turn it on. Solarium took about an hour to complete a full circle.
In this platform, a structure made of nickel oxide and cobalt glass in the 8-foot-8-cabin of daylight could only penetrate the rays of certain wavelengths of sunlight. Each cabin had a special type of bed that was perpendicular to the sun’s rays, so sun rays of fixed wavelengths could be transmitted over certain parts of the patient’s body. The solarium was treated with life-threatening illnesses like tuberculosis, skin diseases, arthritis and cancer.
In 1934 Dr. Gene Seidman and architect Mr. Andre Ford created two more solariums. One in the Valleries of the Alps Maritime in France and the other in our city of Jamnagar. Maharaja Jamsaheb Shri Ranjit Singh ji visited the Solarium during his foreign trip and was impressed and invited Dr. Jean Seidman and Architect Mr. Andre Ford to built a solerium under the Jam Ranjit Poly Radio Therapy Institute in Jamnagar City. At that time, the cost of making this solarium was estimated at around a million rupees. Both the Solariums of France were destroyed in the bombings during World War II, but the Solarium of the city of Jamnagar remained operational for years after World War II, after India’s independence, even after the formation of the state of Gujarat. Later, mechanical spare parts, high quality filters, reflectors, mirrors and lenses also became difficult to find. Its repaired craftsmen also found it difficult to find, and in addition to the expected wavelengths, ultra-violet, infrared and visual lightning gadgets. This eventually led to the closure of the Solarium.
Even today, a building emerging from its historic significance and magnificent past is emerging in our city and is a unique attraction for tourists coming from abroad.