New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1909-01-24
RECORD HEAVY SHOCKS
Continued from first page.

have now on the record. According to the selsno-
graph the tremors lasted hour AMI half
The APPARENT seismic activity just is not at
all remarkable. and the fact that getting
numerous reports of quake records from seismo-
graphs stationed in various parts of the world need
not be regarded at all alarming The earth IS
not shaking a bit than usual, and no one need
fear that such caanities as the Italian disaster
likely to be repeated. The unusual activity is ap-
parent only the world at large is now
the lookout for recorGs. and every minute tremor Is
seized upon and put in print Earthquakes are oc-
curing all the time in various parts OF the earth
As rule however. they strike uninhablted parts
of the globe. and no one pays any attention 10
them because they do not damage humanity. As
the earth becomes thickly settled IL follows
a matter course that more people will be killed
and rendered homeless by these random shakes
Geology teaches that for thousands of years the
earth's crust has been shaking slipping and break
ing. It is a mistake also to say. as some do, that
earthquakes take place only along the shores of
the oceans. The great Missouri earthquake took
place the interior; did the great Indian earth
quake Wherever there is what biologists call
fault in the crust OF the earth 'quakes that
change the surface likely to occur"
Since the recent Italian earthquake there has
been a boom in the sale of seismographs. Officials
here Informed that number Of universities
and colleges have ordered the instruments. and
from this time the business OF recording shakes
OF the earths crust will be generally distrib
n
faeture may be purchased for about 500 The
weather bureau has two Of these installed in
Washington. A third instrument. larger and better
than either of these, was built at the bureaus
Headquarters by Professor Marvin. The first cost
OF a seismograph is a small item compared with it's
maintenance. 1t is machine that must be kept
running every day in the year and every minute
of the day II il is to be Of any value whatever II
II IS neglected and runs down the record shests
are not changed every day, there is no means of
determining how many earthquakes have been
missed. The day that it is not in working orler
is the very time that nature is likely to pick for
Quake The largest of the weather bureaus
seismographs traces seYenty-two feet OF paper
each dav This strip OF seventy-two feet is marked
off in hours minutes and seconds and the precise
moment that a quake begins is at a glance,
as we'll as every minute and second of fits contin-
Since January l6. when The Tribune printed the
news Of the last earthquakes recorded by the gov
ernment's instruments, number OF tremors have
taken place On January 20 the weather bureaus
seismograrh recorded quake, beginning at 1o:22S0
D. m and continuing eleven minutes On January
p there was another record that lasted twenty-five
minutes. beginning at 4:4454 p Neither of
these however, was TO be compared in duration
or intensity with the hour and a-half record made
last night
Professor Otto II. Tittman, superintendent Of the
coast and geodetic survey has received the record
of the Italian earthquake made the surveys
seismograph at Vieques, Porto Rico. The recorded
effect at vieques was slightly greater than was
shown by the surveys seismograph at Chelten-
ham, Nd. The actual movement of the ground in
Porto Rico was about one-tenth of a mtllimetre.