ON SEISMOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS, 85 
XVI. Shinobu Hirota. 
. Many in the Isle of Wight, and many more outside, will regret 
io hear of the death of Shinobu Hirota, which sad event took place 
at his home in Japan on April 24. He came to England in 1895, 
and within a week of his arrival the seismograph which he brought 
with him was at work at Shide. To convince those who had doubts 
as to the possibility of recording an earthquake which had originated 
even so far away as our antipodes and to corroborate whatever records 
might be obtained at Shide, a second instrument was installed at 
Carisbrooke Castle. To look after this Hirota had, wet or fine, a 
daily walk of four miles. The fact that these two instruments gave 
similar records and also that from a single record we could tell the 
distance from which a megaseism had originated, naturally attracted 
some attention. Directly it was shown that certain sub-oceanic dis- 
turbances had interrupted cables, Colonies desirous of knowing the 
cause of these sudden isolations from the rest of the world set up 
seismographs. This was the commencement of the British Association 
co-operation of seismological stations. To bring this into being Hirota 
played an active part. He knew personally many of the directors, 
and gave instruction to their officers. In practical seismometry 
he made many innovations, some of which have rendered instruments 
more sensitive. His multiplying levers made of grass stems gathered- 
from ‘bents’ give pointers exactly one-third the weight of their 
equivalent in aluminium and yet twice if not three times as stiff. It 
was by using these that we got at Bidston the first record of rock 
deformation due to tidal load. In the workshop he was a good all- 
round workman, and in the Observatory office he kept most careful 
records. For photographic work he held a gold medal from the Isle 
of Wight Photographic Society. Above all this, his sharp eyes would 
find in a seismogram two records where at other stations only one 
had been discovered. 
In view of the great attention and large sums which have been 
Spent, particularly in foreign countries, on the new seismological 
departure, I feel it my duty to give recognition to an assistant pioneer 
in these new studies. His work is embodied in annual Seismological 
Reports for the last seventeen years and twenty-six Circulars, being 
the records received from observatories. His chief work at Shide was 
to assist in working up an absolutely new branch of geophysics, which 
has received recognition throughout the world. He died at the age 
of forty-three. 
XVIT. John Milne. 
The above Report was, as stated in the heading, drawn up by the 
“Secretary of the Committee, and in correcting the proof alterations 
have been made as sparingly as possible. 
Tt falls to the lot of the Chairman to add a paragraph recording the 
sudden removal of the mainstay of the work. John Milne died, with 
but a few days’ warning, on July 31. This is not the time or place 
for an adequate account of his life and work; but it may fitly be recalled 
that since he became Secretary of this Committee in 1895, seismology 
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