Janxjaey 22, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



135 



in determining the principles of earth- 

 quake-proof construction. After each 

 great earthquake which in modern times 

 has devastated a city, there has been 

 engineering study of the buildings which 

 successfully resisted the vibrations and of 

 those which succumbed, so that the con- 

 struction of the future might profit by the 

 experience of the past. In various coun- 

 tries, and especially in Japan, there have 

 been series of experiments either for de- 

 termining the mechanical character of 

 earthquake shocks, or for testing the ability 

 of different types of construction to with- 

 stand them. The results of these observa- 

 tions and experiments have helped to 

 determine the building regulations and 

 building methods in various earthquake 

 districts. For our own purposes there are 

 needed, not merely a complication of the 

 principles developed elsewhere and of the 

 deductions from recent experience in Cali- 

 fornia, but special lines of investigation, 

 covering, theoretically and experimentally, 

 the materials and architectural methods 

 employed in this country at the present 

 time. In the line of experiment, we may 

 well follow the example of our oriental 

 neighbors, by constructing a machine 

 which will give to a platform all the mo- 

 tions characteristic of a violent earthquake, 

 and using the platform as a testing ground 

 for types and materials of construction. 



The proposition that it should be the 

 policy of the inhabitants of an earthquake 

 district to recognize the danger and make 

 provision for it appears self-evident, but I 

 regret to say that its soundness is not uni- 

 versally recognized in California. As 

 long ago as 1868, Whitney, speaking of 

 the Pacific states, said: 



The prevailing tone in that region, at present, 

 is that of assumed indifference to the dangers of 

 earthquake calamities — the author of a volumi- 

 nous work on California, recently published in San 

 Francisco, even going so far as to speak of earth- 

 quakes as " harmless disturbances." But earth- 



quakes are not to be bluffed off. They will come, 

 and will do a great deal of damage. The question 

 is, How far can science mitigate the attendant 

 evils, and thus do something toward giving that 

 feeling of security which is necessary for the full 

 development of that part of the country .^= 



This policy of assumed indifference, which 

 is probably not shared by any other earth- 

 quake district in the world, has continued 

 to the present time and is accompanied by 

 a policy of concealment. It is feared that 

 if the ground of California has a reputa- 

 tion for instability, the flow of immigra- 

 tion will be checked, capital will go else- 

 where, and business activity will be im- 

 paired. Under the influence of this fear, 

 a scientific report on the earthquake of 

 1868 was suppressed.^* When the organi- 

 zation of the Seismological Society was 

 under consideration, there were business 

 men who discouraged the idea, because it 

 would give undesirable publicity to the 

 subject of earthquakes. Pains are taken 

 to speak of the disaster of 1906 as a con- 

 flagration, and so far as possible the fact 

 is ignored that the conflagration was 

 caused, and its extinguishment prevented, 

 by injuries due to the earthquake. Dur- 

 ing the period of after-shocks, it was the 

 common practise of the San Francisco 

 dailies to publish telegraphic accounts of 

 small tremors perceived in the eastern part 

 of the United States, but omit mention of 

 stronger shocks in the city itself; and I 

 was soberly informed by a resident of the 

 city that the greater number of the shocks 

 at that time were occasioned by explosions 

 of dynamite in the neighborhood. The de- 

 sire to ignore the earthquake danger has 

 not altogether prevented the legitimate 

 influence of the catastrophe on building 

 regulations and building practises, but 



^' " Earthquakes," by J. D. Whitney, North 

 American Review for April, 1869, Vol. CVIII., 

 p. 608. 



" " California State Earthquake Investigation 

 Commission," Vol. I., Part II., p. 434. 



