Page:McClure's Magazine volume 10.djvu/413

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Milne was silent a moment, and then said: "I'll be ready, sir, on Tuesday." And so he sailed for Newfoundland—and what he did there is a separate chapter. But it was all to his credit, for soon came an offer from the Japanese Government, intent upon getting the best brains in Europe to assist in the nation's development, inviting Milne to join its service, at a handsome salary, in the department of mines and public works.

So it came about, twenty-five years ago, that this young Englishman took up his abode in Tokio, and in due course turned his attention to earthquakes. This happens quite naturally when one finds oneself in a country where there are two or three earthquakes a day on an average, counting small and large, throughout the year, and where in many instances a single one of these earthquakes has been a more serious matter to Japan in loss of life, and almost as serious a matter in resulting expenditure, as her recent war with China.

Under such circumstances, it was not difficult for a keenly interested and scientifically-trained European to develop into an earthquake enthusiast; and Milne was soon putting forth seismic theories with the best of them, and trying experiments with rough-and-ready seismoscopes and seismometers, which were sometimes rows of pins propped up in a certain way, so that in falling they would give indications as to wave direction, or sometimes bits of string with weights at the end designed to act as recording pendulums; or, again, gravestones tumbled over on their sides in the hope that by their slide or shifting they would show the line and intensity of the earthquake movement.

He produced plans of earthquake-proof houses: houses with roof-timbers running down to the floor sills, which was equivalent, practically, to having the roof rest on the ground. He also showed the Japanese engineers how to build bridges with parabolic piers, so that at any horizontal section they offer equal resistance to effects of momentums applied at the base.

And, as the value of his conclusions became apparent through actual tests, the Japanese Government, properly grateful, established a chair of seismology at the