In 132 AD in China, scientist-inventor Zhang Heng introduced the first seismoscope, believed to be capable of predicting earthquakes with the accuracy of modern instruments.

Historical records preserve an accurate description of its appearance and how it functioned, but the exact internal construction is still a mystery. Repeatedly, scientists have attempted to create a model of such a seismoscope, putting forward various theories about the principle of its operation.

The most common of them says that the pendulum inside the copper bulb sets in motion during tremors, even if the epicenter of the earthquake is hundreds of kilometers away. In turn, the pendulum hit the lever system, with the help of which the mouth of one of the eight dragons located outside was opened.

Reconstruction of an ancient seismoscope from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) and its inventor Zhang

In the mouth of each animal was a bronze ball, which fell into an iron toad, making a loud ringing. Historical accounts say that the sound produced was so loud that it could wake up all the inhabitants of the imperial court.

The dragon, whose mouth opened, indicated in which direction the earthquake occurred. Each of the eight animals belonged to one of the directions: East, West, North, South, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest, respectively.

The invention was initially greeted with skepticism, despite the fact that Zhang was already a well-known scientist at that time, who was appointed by the imperial court to the post of chief astronomer. But around 138 AD, a bronze ball sounded the first alarm, indicating that an earthquake had occurred west of the capital Luoyang.

The signal was ignored as no one in the city felt the signs of an earthquake. A few days later, a messenger arrived from Luoyang with news of severe destruction: the city, located at a distance of 300 km, lay in ruins as a result of a natural disaster.

A scientist from the Institute of Geophysics in China determined that the first earthquake detected by such a seismoscope occurred on December 13, 134 and had a strength of 7 points.

Thus, the apparatus was created for the purpose of detecting earthquakes in remote regions, but it only functioned during the lifetime of its inventor. Apparently, the device of the first seismoscope was so complicated that only the scientist himself could keep it in working condition.

Modern attempts to recreate the copy have met with mixed success, and they have all been built using inertia, a principle that is also used in today's seismographs.

In 1939, a Japanese scientist created a model of such a seismoscope, but not in all cases the ball fell exactly in the direction of the epicenter of the earthquake.

A more accurate reconstruction of the invention was created jointly by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Museum and the China Seismological Bureau in 2005.

According to Chinese media, the apparatus responded accurately to the reproduced waves of five earthquakes that occurred in Tangshan, Yunnan, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and Vietnam. Compared to modern instruments, the seismoscope showed amazing accuracy, and its shape was the same as described in historical texts.

However, not everyone is inclined to believe in the effectiveness of the first seismoscope. Robert Reiterman, executive director of the Universities Consortium for Earthquake Engineering Research, expressed skepticism about the accuracy of the apparatus described in the historical accounts.

“In the event that the epicenter of the earthquake was at a close distance, the whole structure staggered so much that the balls would simultaneously fall out of all the dragons. At a far distance, the movements of the earth do not leave a clear trace to identify which side the vibrations come from. Since until the moment when the vibrations of the earth's surface reach the seismoscope, they occur in different directions, most likely chaotically, ”he writes in his book Engineers and Earthquakes: An International History.

If the seismoscope really worked as accurately as it was described in historical records, which is also hinted at by the functioning of modern copies, then Zhang's genius still remains unattainable.

Zhang Heng(78 - 139) - Chinese philosopher, encyclopedic thinker, writer, poet, statesman and scientist, who owns world discoveries and inventions in mathematics, astronomy, mechanics, seismology and geography.

Who invented the seismograph?

The first known instrument capable of detecting vibrations of the earth's surface was invented in 132 by the Chinese astronomer Zhang Heng. The device consisted of a large bronze vessel about two meters in diameter, on the outer walls of which there were 8 dragon heads. The jaws of the dragons opened, each had a ball in its mouth. Inside the vessel was a pendulum with rods, each attached to the dragon's head.

When the pendulum was set in motion as a result of an underground shock, the rod connected to the head facing the shock opened the dragon's mouth, the ball rolled out of it and fell into the open mouth of one of the 8 toads sitting at the base of the vessel. The device was very sensitive: it caught tremors, the epicenter of which was 600 kilometers away.

In the observatory on Vesuvius, a seismograph capable of recording the passage of seismic waves, their amplitude, direction and time of shock was installed only in 1856.

Since the establishment in 1960 of the World Reference Seismographic Network, stations equipped with standard instruments and operating on a single time have been established in almost all corners of the globe.

Seismograph

Seismograph- a special measuring device that is used to detect and record all types of seismic waves. In most cases, a seismograph has a load with a spring attachment, which remains stationary during an earthquake, while the rest of the instrument (body, support) moves and shifts relative to the load. Some seismographs are sensitive to horizontal movements, others to vertical ones. The waves are recorded by a vibrating pen on a moving paper tape. There are also electronic seismographs (without paper tape).

Until recently, mechanical or electromechanical devices were mainly used as sensitive elements of seismographs. It is quite natural that the cost of such instruments, containing elements of precision mechanics, is so high that they are practically inaccessible to an ordinary researcher, and the complexity of the mechanical system and, accordingly, the requirements for the quality of its execution, in fact, mean the impossibility of manufacturing such instruments on an industrial scale.

The rapid development of microelectronics and quantum optics has now led to the emergence of serious competitors to traditional mechanical seismographs in the mid- and high-frequency region of the spectrum. However, such devices based on micromachining technology, fiber optics or laser physics have very unsatisfactory characteristics in the infra-low frequency region (up to several tens of Hz), which is a problem for seismology (in particular, the organization of teleseismic networks).

There is also a fundamentally different approach to the construction of the mechanical system of a seismograph - the replacement of a solid inertial mass with a liquid electrolyte. In such devices, an external seismic signal induces a flow of working fluid, which, in turn, is converted into an electrical current using an electrode system. Sensing elements of this type are called molecular-electronic. The advantages of seismographs with liquid inertial mass are low cost, long service life, about 15 years, and the absence of precision mechanics elements, which greatly simplifies their manufacture and operation.

Computerized seismic systems

With the advent of computers and analog-to-digital converters, the functionality of seismic equipment has increased dramatically. It became possible to simultaneously record and analyze signals from several seismic sensors in real time, take into account the spectra of signals. This provided a fundamental leap in the information content of seismic measurements.

Seismograph examples

Molecular electron seismograph. .
Autonomous bottom seismograph. . Archived from the original on December 3, 2012.

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Synonyms:

See what "Seismograph" is in other dictionaries:

Seismograph … Spelling Dictionary

- (Greek, from seismos vibration, concussion, and I write grapho). Apparatus for observing earthquakes. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. SEISMOGRAPH Greek, from seismos, shock, and grapho, I am writing. Apparatus for ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Syn. seismic term. Geological dictionary: in 2 volumes. M.: Nedra. Edited by K. N. Paffengolts et al. 1978 ... Geological Encyclopedia

Geophone, seismic receiver Dictionary of Russian synonyms. seismograph noun, number of synonyms: 2 geophone (1) … Synonym dictionary

- (from seismic ... and ... graph) a device for recording vibrations of the earth's surface during earthquakes or explosions. The main parts of the seismograph pendulum and recording device ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

- (seismometer), a device for measuring and recording SEISMIC WAVES caused by movement (EARTHQUAKE or explosion) in the earth's crust. Vibrations are recorded using a writing element on a rotating drum. Some seismographs are able to capture ... ... Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary

SEISMOGRAPH, seismograph, husband. (from Greek seismos shaking and grapho I write) (geol.). Device for automatic recording of vibrations of the earth's surface. Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Explanatory Dictionary of Ushakov

SEISMOGRAPH, a, husband. A device for recording vibrations of the earth's surface during earthquakes or explosions. Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 ... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

Seismograph- - a device designed to record vibrations of the earth's surface caused by seismic waves. It consists of a pendulum, for example, a steel weight, which is suspended on a spring or thin wire from a stand firmly fixed in the ground. ... ... Oil and gas microencyclopedia

seismograph- A device for converting mechanical vibrations of the soil into electrical and subsequent recording on photosensitive paper. [Glossary of geological terms and concepts. Tomsk State University] Topics geology, geophysics Generalizing ... ... Technical Translator's Handbook

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Seismograph(from other Greek σεισμός - earthquake and other Greek γράφω - to write) or seismometer- a measuring device that is used in seismology to detect and record all types of seismic waves. An instrument for determining the strength and direction of an earthquake.

The first known attempt to make an earthquake predictor belongs to the Chinese philosopher and astronomer Zhang Heng.

ZhangHeng invented the device, which he named Houfeng " ” and which could record the vibrations of the earth's surface and the direction of their propagation.

Houfeng and became the world's first seismograph. The device consisted of a large bronze vessel with a diameter of 2 m, on the walls of which eight dragon heads were located. The jaws of the dragons opened, and each had a ball in its mouth.

Inside the vessel was a pendulum with rods attached to the heads. As a result of an underground shock, the pendulum began to move, acted on the heads, and the ball fell out of the dragon's mouth into the open mouth of one of the eight toads sitting at the base of the vessel. The device picked up tremors at a distance of 600 km from it.

1.2. Modern seismographs

First seismograph modern design was invented by a Russian scientist, prince B. Golitsyn, which used the conversion of mechanical vibration energy into electrical current.

The design is quite simple: the weight is suspended on a vertically or horizontally located spring, and a recorder pen is attached to the other end of the weight.

A rotating paper tape is used to record the vibrations of the load. The stronger the push, the further the feather deviates and the longer the spring oscillates.

The vertical weight allows you to record horizontally directed shocks, and vice versa, the horizontal recorder records shocks in the vertical plane.

As a rule, horizontal recording is carried out in two directions: north-south and west-east.

In seismology, depending on the tasks to be solved, various types of seismographs are used: mechanical, optical or electric with different types of amplification and signal processing methods. A mechanical seismograph includes a sensitive element (usually a pendulum and a damper) and a recorder.

The base of the seismograph is rigidly connected with the object under study, during the vibrations of which the movement of the load occurs relative to the base. The signal is recorded in analog form on recorders with mechanical recording.

1.3. Building a seismograph

Materials: Cardboard box; awl; ribbon; plasticine; pencil; felt-tip pen; twine or strong thread; a piece of thin cardboard.

The frame for the seismograph will serve as a cardboard box. It needs to be made of a fairly rigid material. Its open side will be the front of the device.

It is necessary to make a hole in the top cover of the future seismograph with an awl. If the stiffness for " frames» is not enough, it is necessary to glue the corners and edges of the box with adhesive tape, strengthening it, as shown in the photo.

Roll up a ball of plasticine and make a hole in it with a pencil. Push the felt-tip pen into the hole so that its tip protrudes slightly from the opposite side of the plasticine ball.

This is a seismograph pointer designed to draw lines of earth vibrations.

Pass the end of the thread through the hole in the top of the box. Place the box on the bottom side and tighten the thread so that the felt-tip pen is hanging freely.

Tie the top end of the thread to the pencil and rotate the pencil around the axis until you take out the slack in the thread. When the marker is hanging at the correct height (that is, just lightly touching the bottom of the box), secure the pencil in place with tape.

Slide a sheet of cardboard under the tip of the felt-tip pen to the bottom of the box. Adjust everything so that the tip of the felt-tip pen easily touches the cardboard and can leave lines.

The seismograph is ready to go. It uses the same operating principle as real equipment. A weighted suspension, or pendulum, will be more inertial in relation to shaking than a frame.

To test the device in practice, there is no need to wait for an earthquake. You just have to shake the frame. The gimbal will stay in place, but will begin to draw lines on the cardboard, just like a real one.

Who is who in the world of discoveries and inventions Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

Who invented the seismograph?

In the observatory on Vesuvius, a seismograph capable of recording the passage of seismic waves, their amplitude, direction and time of shock was installed only in 1856.

This text is an introductory piece. author Sitnikov Vitaly Pavlovich

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