Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-31

hood days back some 1900 to 5000
millions of years. about the time
when the infant saw fit to doff her
swaddling clothes, spun Of nebuor
antique. to don a cloak of variegated
rock.
This stage carries much impor-
tance," said Father Tondorf, FOR the
belief is fully established that here
Mother Earth, chilled in her cooling.
took to shlverlng, and has persist
emily kept at this ever since"
When Father Tondorf says that
seismology Is actually in its infancy
he says so guardedIy.
The Chinese Annals. Of all the
older documents the most reliable,
chronicle that a Chinese, Choke by
name. first entered the field OF instru-
mental research on earthquake hap
penings in 1876 AID. His machine, so
il was claimed, could register seismic
occurrences when local or afar, and
orient the direction of their move
ment and travel.
First Improved in 1903.
But the Dark Ages Graded science
in deepest slumber. The first awaken
ing in seismology was with the break
ing of the year 1903. Then, De Haute
Fueille. a French able. featured the
first improvement on the Monaghan
contraption. Not only did the priest
claim for his device greater sensitive
ness than that of it's predecessor but
the additional asset Of rating the IN
tensity Of the earth's motion Inc
French machine used mercury as
medium Of detecting QuakeS.
Going back to the remarkable IN
strument invented by Choke, which
virtually represents all the advance in
such Instruments for 100 years,
Rather Tondorf gave credit to the
chinese scientist for suggesting the
mechanism that now makes the eaftn
write it's own record.
THE first seismograph looked very
much like potato maSher. fathef
Tondorf described this que@r-looklnS
contra ption which amazed the mod
ernists" of ancient China. Near the
handle were heads OF dragons pro-
truding, with mouths agape. In a CIR
Gle under the dragons were seated
frogs. also with mouths open wide ana
expectant. Inside was a cylinder con-
tanning a metal pill When the inStru-
mcnt registered a quake the pill would
roll out OF the mouth Of dragon and
into the mouth Of a frog. which Would
begin to Vibrate vigorously. Ii the
earth movement was toward the north
the Dill would roll from the mouth OF
the dragon facing north, and if toward
the south, for instance. from the
mouth of the dragon facing south.
From this the ancient scientist
could tell in what direction the quake
occurred.
Distant Quake Recorded.
"Once upon a time. the records say,
a dragon dropped it's pill without an
earthquake having been observed, and
/ the people therefore thought the In
| strument of no use, hut after two or
! three days a notice came saying that
| a shock had taken place at Roset
] Hearing this, those who had doubted
! the use Of the instrument began to
/ believe In it ag9in. After this ingeni'
/ nl3s instrument had been invented the
! Chinese government wisely appointed
! q secretary 10 make observations on
/ earthquakes"
| Choke became n man Of some re-
! nown in his native land, being lauded
and showered with gifts by the En-
! peror when his seiSmograph regis.
/ tered the first quake accurately
Little or no progress was noted in
/! the advance Of scientific instruments
! after 1903 until the close Of the last
century, when a band of enthusiastic
! English biologists, experimenting in
Japan. where earthquakes mature
! overnight, boted together the first in
| slrument which gave records Of
quantitive character. Today Il chain
Of such instruments circles the world.
The modern seiSmograph, which
writes in such uncanny fashion tho
autograph OF the earth, is so deli
cately. fashioned that when n fly walks
over the 590-pound weight that
steadies the pen of the instrument,
whatever direction the fly travels, it
is recorded on the machine. a noted
English seismologist, some years ago
was greatly agitated by the frequent
severe quakes recorded on his machine
until he discovered that a frislly spider
had been guilty Of classifying the
records.
Earthquakes Registered Here.
The Georgetown Observatory, which
has been of invaluable assistance to
the Federal Government in its studies
of the earth's movements. has ak OF