Ancient Chinese Seismometer

In ancient China, earthquake warnings arrived via metal dragons and frogs. The mouths of the dragons were hinged and held a brass ball. When the pendulum would swing slightly, the ball would release and noisily fall into the mouth of a frog. Not only would this warn of an earthquake, it would tell in which direction the Earth was moving.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.