Three-Channel Drum Photographic Recorder (WWSSN)
date: label: date made
content: 1961-1962
name: label: maker
content: United ElectroDynamics
notes: label: Description
content: Each of the 120 stations in the World Wide Standard Seismological Network had several drum recorders that, covered with photographic paper, recorded the three components (one vertical and two horizontal) of seismic phenomena. This three-channel recorder would have been used with the three long-period seismometers. It is marked “United Electro Dynamics Inc. / United GeoMeasurements Division / Pasadena California / Recorder, Photographic / Model No. DR 275 / Part No. 217205 / Serial No. 11.” It was used at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
label: Description
content: Established in the early 1960s, the WWSSN was a key component of VELA Uniform, a Cold War project that was funded by the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), a branch of the Department of Defense. The WWSSN was designed to detect underground nuclear tests and generate valuable information about the earth’s interior and its dynamic processes. It was managed by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and then by the U.S. Geological Survey. That agency transferred this instrument to the Smithsonian in 1999.
label: Description
content: As the chief engineer of the Seismological Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, Francis Lehner helped the scientists in that Pasadena institution design and make their instruments. Working with his nephew, Bob Griffith, he made seismological apparatus for other organizations. In 1960 after receiving a substantial contract to produce equipment for VELA Uniform, Lehner & Griffith became the core part of the United GeoMeasurements Division of United ElectroDynamics, a much larger defense contractor that was also located in Pasadena. In 1964 when United ElectroDynamics was sold to Teledyne, the seismological operations were merged with those of the Geotechnical Corporation. The seismic instrument designers and makers of United ElectroDynamics who refused to move to Texas then formed Kinemetrics.
label: Description
content: Ref: United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, <i>Instrumentation of the World-Wide Seismograph System, Model 10700</i> (Washington, D.C., 1962).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: California, Pasadena
topic: label: related event
content: Cold War
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
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content: Seismographs
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Measuring & Mapping
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: U.S. Geological Survey
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1999.0275.10
label: accession number
content: 1999.0275
label: catalog number
content: 1999.0275.10
objectType: label: Object Name
content: three-channel drum photographic recorder
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 35 cm x 139 cm x 44 cm; 13 25/32 in x 54 23/32 in x 17 5/16 in