For ordinary observers, if a time-taker is not used in conjunction with a record receiver, as good results as those obtained by ordinary clock-stopping apparatus are obtainable by glancing at an ordinary watch. Subsequently the watch by which the observation was made should be compared with some good time-keeper, and the local time at which the shock took place is then approximately known.
From what has now been said it will be seen that for a complete seismograph we require three distinct sets of apparatus—an apparatus to record horizontal motion, an apparatus to record vertical motion, and an apparatus to record time. The horizontal and vertical motions must be written on the same receiver, and if possible side by side, whilst the instant at which the time record is made a mark must be made on the edge of the diagram which is being drawn by the seismograph. Such a seismograph has been constructed and is now erected in Japan. It is illustrated in the accompanying diagram.
The Gray and Milne Seismograph.—In this apparatus two mutually rectangular components of the horizontal motion of the earth are recorded on a sheet of smoked paper wound round a drum, d, kept continuously in motion by clockwork, w, by means of two conical pendulum seismographs, c. The vertical motion is recorded on the same sheet of paper by means of a compensated-spring seismograph, s l m b.
The time of occurrence of an earthquake is determined by causing the circuit of two electro-magnets to be closed by the shaking. One of these magnets relieves a mechanism, forming part of a time-keeper, which causes the dial of the timepiece to come suddenly forwards on the hands and then move back to its original position. The hands are provided with ink-pads, which mark their positions on the dial, thus indicating the hour, minute, and second when the circuit was closed. The second electro-magnet causes a pointer to make a mark on the paper receiving the record of the motion. This mark indicates the part of the earthquake at which the circuit was closed.
Fig. 8.
The duration of the earthquake is estimated from the length of the record on the smoked paper and the rate of motion of the drum. The nature and period of the different movements are obtained from the curves drawn on the paper.
Mr. Gray has since greatly modified this apparatus, notably by the introduction of a band of paper sufficiently long to take a record for twenty-four hours without repetition. The record is written in ink by means of fine siphons. In this way the instrument, which is extremely sensitive to change of level, can be made to show not only earthquakes, but the pulsations of long period which have recently occupied so much attention.