Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1905-09-05
OF RARE OCCURRENCE
FEW EARTHQUAKES ARE RE-
CORDED IN PARIS.
Last Seismic Disturbance That Was
Registered There Took Place on
May 81, 1s8e-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:
It is recorded that seismic move
ment has been felt at Grenoble and at
various points in the Alps, and that
earthquakes were 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 IL, 1881,
q very extensive movement signaled in
England and Germany; October 6, I'LL;
January 1S and April 30, 1855; January
20, 1850; May 81, 1921; February 10,
1922; July i, 1S41, especially on the left
bank of the Seine; April 1, 1858, at
Sevres; July /, 1855; September IA, 1866,
mainly in this neighborhood; January
%, 1878, lasting from eight to ten Sec
onds Gin 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 %, 1887
(this earthquake conceded 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 ere registered with the
aid of instruments called seismographs,
based as a 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 orten
a fairly long way of, as, for instance,
on July 10, 1894, when the magnetic
curves registered at the Pare Saint-Maur
marked q great disturbance at ten min
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
past ten-that is to say, it took only II
minutes for the tremor to pass from
Constantinople to Paris. In other
words, pace was attained of 3,10C
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
magnetic instruments at the Pare Saint.
Maur and the Pic du Midi. Only i'm.
portant stations possess seismographie
instruments, and only. too, in countries
where earthquakes are frequent, such
for instance, as Japan. where nearly all
the meteorological stations have seis
mographs. In the Alps, too, earth.
guakes are regularly registered.
In places where there are no obserra
ton stations there has been established
kind u graduated scale, which classes
> the earthquakes into ten categories, ac
! cording to the damage or accidents
caused.