The San Francisco call., 1906-05-10
Learns Of San Francisco
Shake Hours Before
News Is Wired.
Machine Gives Him InfOr.
nation Of All Seismic
DiSturbd CeS.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

LONDON, May s.-There is one man
in England who, though living thou
sands Of miles from the scene of the
disaster, ran away from the San
Francisco earthquake. To be strictly
correct. it was not the earthquake
that caused him to hide himself in
London, but tie horde Of reporters
that besieged him in his peaceful homo
in the Isle of Wight and bombarded
him with questions concerning the
cause of the catastrophe.
Professor John Milne knows more
about seismology than any other man
in England, or probably in the world.
unless it be some of those wonderful
japanese, who have not yet caught
the Western habit Of telling all they
know. Professor Milne is here regard
ed as species of consulting physician
for diseases of the earths crust, from
whom information can be obtained
without payment of fees. He is one
OF the best natured of men, and or
dinarily cheerfJlly submits himself to
the interviewer But when it comes
to telling the same thing over and over
again to long procession of inter-
viewers he kicks and skips until things
quiet down again. Thus it happens
that he always runs away when big
earthquake turns up
professor Milne is an earthauahe
hunter: For nearly twenty years he
pursued them IL Japan, their native
lair, where, as he puts it, you have
earthquakes for breakfast, dinner and
tea. 1t was a fascinating and excit-
ing pastime, but it had its disadvan-
ages, one of which was that it debar-
red him from getting an insurance pol
Icy on his life. So, after he had made
a seismic survey Of Japan and married
a dainty little Japanese woman. he
invented a macnine for trapping earth
quakes and brought it and his wife
to England and settled down in a de-
ightful rose-ciad. old fashioned house
in~the Isle of Wight. Here, we'll out
OF the danger zone himself, his ma
chine gives him a record of every
earthquake on the globe that amounts
to anything. ro matter how distant
the seat Of the disturbance may be.
He has several OF these instruments.
The largest Of them is made from a
discarded street lamp post This rigid
pillar of iron is built into a block OF
masonry which In turn, rests on n
deep substratum of chalk. Near the
base Of the lamp post, projecting 1T
right angles from it, Is weighted
steel boom, from the end of which de-
pends a need @ that writes without
ceasing on an eternally revolving CYL
inder covered with sheet Of paper
blackened over lamp. When the old
earth is behaving itself properly the
lines the needs traces on the smoked
paper are steady and straight But
when there is an earthquake cutting
up didos anywhere the needle makes
Jagged marks and the greater the de-
viations from the straight line the
more violent is the earthquake
The seisometer, to give the recording
angel of the earthquakes its scien- !
tific name, makes, In fact three sep
arate diagrams Of each earthquake. |
The first records the vibrations trans
mitted through the earth's interior and
this message travels at the rate, OF
ten miles a second. The second is on
a large scale and records the slower
moving vibrations which have tray
eled round the surface Of the globe
in the most direct route, and the third
those which have been transmitted
round the earth in the other direction
by the longer route. The clock which T,
keeps the cylinder revolving also reg |
listers the time upon il.
BY the aid If this and calculations
based on the varying rates OF speed
the seismic waves travel, the professor
is able to locate approximately the
spot where the earthquake broke loose.
When the needle begins to make jag
ged tracks the tinkling OF little bell
warns the professor that it is writing
the story of some great convulsiofl. Tt
rung him up when the San Francisco
earthquake occurred hours before
any tidings Of it reached the London
newspaper offices.
There is nothing of the scientific re-
cluse about Professor Milne. He has
rugged, open-air face, with a big,
broad forehead and piercing blue eyes.
He roughed 1t in many parts of the
world before he took to earthquake
hunting. His Japanese wife is a.
bright, winsome little lady. She has
surrounded his scientific workshop
with quaint and picturesque Eastern
relics and burns incense before the
chief of them-an impassive, majestic
Buddha-whenever she wants some
n ~ ,f he, 49, E