The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1905-09-21
OF RARE OCCURRENCE
FEW EARTHouAKEs ARE RE
CORDED IN PARIS.
Last Seismic Disturbance That Was
Registered There Took Place on
May 81, lss9-The Value
of Seismographs.

Paris.-M. Joseph Jaubert, director Of
the municipal observatories Of the Tour
Saint-Jacques and the Pare Montsouris.
communicates the following:
IL Is recorded that a seismic move
ment has been felt at Grenoble and at
various points in the Alps, and that
cart hquakes we're noticed in different
parts of France, chiefly In the Alps, and
partly in the north.
In Paris these phenomena are fairly
rare. the last that was registered having
taken place In May 81, 1889. No docu-
ments are to hand giving details of any
earthquakes that may have occurred
further back than the fifteenth century,
but since that period the following are
on record:
April 6, 1880, one which caused some
damage in the outskirts in the north
west and demolished portion of the
church at Pontoise; September ~, 1881,
a very extensive movement signaled in
England and Germany; October 8, I'LL;
January IS and April 30, 1855; January
20, 1850; May 81. 1921; February 19.
1922; July 1, 1841, especially on the left
bank of the Seine; April /, 1853, at
Sevres; July 1, 1855; September IA, 1866,
mainly in this neighborhood; January
2S, 1878. lasting from eight to ten sec.
onds lin Paris there were fairly ac-
centuated oscillations, and in the quar-
tier du Marais, at Montmartre and at
Versailles there were light tremors
felt); August 16, 1885; February 23, 1887
(this earthquake coincided with that
which caused such serious harm on the
Gulf of Genoa littoraD; finally, that Of
May 81, 1889, felt In Paris and outskirts.
Earthquakes are registered with the
aid of instruments called seismographs
based as rule upon the movement of a
pendulum produced by the shock. which
movement inscribes automatically the
direction, intensity and duration of the
said shock.
Observation of the earth's magnetism
shows a correlation between certain
magnetic perturbations and the move
ments Of the earth. The latter are o1ten
fairly long way of, as, for instance,
on July 10. 1894, when the magnetic
curves registered at the Pare Saint Maur
|
utes TO II o'clock. the local time CORE
spending to "a minutes to II at Con-
> stantinople. Now, at the latter town
> an earthquake took place at "a minutes
, rast ten-that is to say, 1t took only II
!. minutes for the tremor to pass from
!. Constantlnople to Paris. In Other
words, pace was attained of 3,10t
a meters per second
: The earthquake which took place
. some weeks ago in the Rhone valley and
. spread as far as Switzerland was regis
- tered almost simultaneously by the
e magnetic instruments at the Pare Saint
Y Maur and the Pic du Midi. Only i'm
|. portsnt stations possess seismographit
instruments, and only, too, in countrie!
g where earthquakes are frequent, such
- for instance. as Japan, where nearly al
8 the meteorological stations have seis
g mographs. In the Alps, too, earth
n anakes are regularly registered.
In places where there are no obserSs
4 tion stations there has been established
f kind of graduated scale which classes
/. the earthquakes into ten categories. &C
t cording to the damage or accident
4. caused - ,.sss Ans~.