It is an inexpensive earthquake detector for homes, offices and school classrooms that sounds a loud buzzer as soon as an earthquake begins. The Quake Alarm TM is a small plastic device that is not much bigger than a thermostat that mounts onto a wall with adhesive velcro strips and it operates off a nine-volt battery. This pendulum moves, tripping a switch circuit which sounds the loud buzzer. The Quake Alarm TM has a sensitivity adjustment whereby it can detect close by 4.0 earthquakes to quakes of 6.0 and above that are hundreds of miles away.
Earthquakes produce many waves caused by the plate or rock movements beneath the surface.
This gives you a few seconds to help children or others find a safe place to be, like under a table, and the buzzer is loud enough to wake you up. We have been testing the reverse pendulum design for over five years and have test records of actual earthquakes that show that it does, in fact, work. There are a number of units installed right now in homes and schools about Los Angeles which report into us when they sound their alarms, and we tie into actual United States Geological Survey earthquakes they have recorded. You say the Quake Alarm TM operates off a nine-volt battery. With intermittent alarming and testing of the units on a regular basis, a nine-volt alkaline battery will last about two to five years.