NEWS FROM INSIDE THE EARTH.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3352, 20 December 1926, Page 3

NEWS FROM INSIDE THE EARTH.

It radio experiments now being conducted' in Japan are successful it will be possible, it is declared, to foretell the coming of earthquakes, and thus rob tins act of nature of some of its devastating effects. For many years instruments have recorded earthquake shocks, but none has yet been invented by which i( is possible to determine when ami where they will occur. Though the seismograph, or earth- ] quake recorder, in use at present is j sufficiently sensitive to record earthI quake shocks, it does not measure I minute slips or the earth strains which j precede a big earthquake, i Th c . new radio seismograph, it is | claimed, will measure the slightest ] movement or sound emanating from j either the porous or dense strata immediately below tlq. earth’s surface. It is hoped hy studying the records i thus made to discover a method of - foretelling not only the location of a coming earthquake or volcanic eruption, hut also its magnitude. Badio-scismatie instruments which j locate the direction from which the I sounds proceed arc being used so that the area concerned can he located on the map hy means of hearings, in Ihe way that ships find their position at sea. ’three stations will work in conjunction to locate earthquakes in a I given area. The new system is understood to he a method ol clamping on the earth's door highly sensitive radio receiving apparatus, and then through amplification and the use of an instrument called the “oscillograph” to obtain a record of all motions and noises. Radio bus already rendered service beyond valuation to the world in general and to Japan in particular. Three years ago the wireless station id Iwaki flashed to the outside world j the news of a terrible earthquake dis- | aster, and it is apt surprising that the j Japanese are lollowing the progress of the new discovery with the keenest interest. in the hope that radio will enable them to escape in time from the terrors with which nature has so frequently visited their homeland.

During a Madrid bullfight.- the matador Bellonte killed a bullock in honor ■ ol Mr \ aederhilt. the American millionaire. Mr Vanderbilt thereupon gave him a tfflOO cheque.