Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-08

experience is not shared By those who do not
build massive, heavy structures. The Indians
inhabiting the coast Of Chile, one OF the most
active chronological regions OF the world, had
no traditions regarding earthquake demons;
they did not even fear them. Why should
they? A shock does not injuTe the inmate OF
a brush or waffle shelter If primitive man
was frightened it was by the roar rather than
by the tremors.
Only as man became builder had he oc-
casion for fear Do not blame the earthquake.
Man himself is solely responsible for his own
failure to learn how to build.
The Sumerians who built cities of mud
brick in the valley of Euphrates in $500 b. G.
may have been among the earliest to be buried
beneath falling walls. Only recently English
men in Napier, New Zealand, were similarly
buried Fifty-hve hundred years Of frequent
disaster and we have not learned to avoid 1t!
THREE years ago arrived at Napier in the
u afternoon and strolled by the sea as the
sun set. The evening was exquisite. Children
were playing about. walk in the upper town
over the bluff had shown me many gardens and
much greenery around the coy dwellings, each
incaosed by the high wall that guards the
Britains privacy. Security and peace reigned
in harmony with the scene.
No one thought of danger. Perhaps did
not Earthquakes had been discussed, how
ever, with officials at wellington. Insurance
companies, anxious regarding their risks where
the living were not troubled for their lives, were
pressing the Geological Survey to issue fault
map-a map that should show the fractures on
which earthquakes might occur. Having seen
1t, knew that the southeastern spur of the
North Island, stretching from Wellington to
Napier, Is traversed by faults that run from
southwest to northeast, parallel with the noun
tain range.
I had crossed the range in very young
river gorge and knew that the mountains are
being pushed up. 1t was common knowledge
that Wellington had been the scene of severe
shock. 1t not infrequently happens that one
earthquake succeeds another along the same
fracture zone, at some distance away and q
few years later. At Napier there was some To-
cal evidence Of previous shocks As strolled
along the shore noted that the face Of the
blum was the back of an ancient landslide, such
as now has again been caused by an earthquake
and sliding down has crowded up the bottom
Of the sea.
IT. anticipating the disaster that recently oc-
CURED, had said the earthquake force would
strike somewhere, sometime, what would have
been the result? I would have aroused fear,
doubt, protest. but Napier would not have es-
capped. It could escape only by rebuilding ac-
cording to earthquake resistant designs and
that it could not afford to do until after it had
been destroyed. Experience is the only school
IN which men learn.
We are learning something in that school
The lessons Of California, Japan, italy, Chile.
New England and New Zealand are not alto
gether wasted. The art Of building structures
that viii Withstand an earthquake shock occu-
pies the thought Of leading engineers. Some
have studied buildings that have failed Others
have called attention 10 buildings that did not
fail Still others are engaged in testing sample
structures by artificial earthquakes, a fasci-
mating line of research that encounters many
surprises
Let me give you an account Of some obser-
vations on the progress Of the art Of earth
quake resistant construction during the last
decade, beginning with the studies of a COM
mittee appointed by the chronological Society
Of America in 1920 to consider that subject. It
was group of the ablest men available-struc-
tural engineers, architects and seismologists.
We met at intervals during more, than two
years, usually at Stanford University
We sought information regarding the vbra-
tory action Of earthquake motion, but from the
engineers standpoint got very little satisfaction.
The seismologist's records did not explain the
character Of the damage done TO buildings, be-
cause they were taken by instruments designed
to record distant shocks, placed on firm founda-
TONS and otherwise artincially conditioned.
We wanted the vibrations Of the rock or SOIL
wet or dry, near the earthquake origin. And
We are stil waiting for precise knowledge Of it,
Scientific seismology has not observed the data
required by engineers. We must look to ex-
pe1imental earthquakes artihciaIy produced,
for that information.
N>HE committee considered buildings with
brick or masonry bearing walls (tl1e house
that through the ages has been responsible for
more deaths than any other, because usually
It n not tied together, outside wall to outside
Wall, and the floor beams are set in shallow
Sockets) framed structures Of timbers OF Steel
and various kinds Of reinforced concrete con-
Struction. OF the reports submitted only few
were published in the bulletin of the society,
for we were cropping.
In 1928 saw the destruction wrought in