308 REPORT OF THE CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE COMMISSION. 
Dishes, etc. —'There were few houses in which something did not move or fall a notice- 
able distance, and yet few in which everything moved or fell. There was little regularity, 
even in the same house, in the amount of movement of loose objects. Innumerable 
instances of seemingly capricious variation could be cited. The earthquake resulted 
in severe damage to breakables and heavy loss of dishes and bric-A-brac. Approximate 
figures as to the amount of such damage are given in the table on page 365. In houses 
where only a few dishes fell the damage was considered slight. Those losing about 
half of the breakables are shown in the second column, and all of the more severe cases 
are placed in column 3. The percentages are at best only approximate. In the valley 
about 40 per cent of the houses lost slightly, and 40 per cent lost heavily, the loss in 
the remaining 20 per cent being intermediate. On the hills 74 per cent of the houses 
lost but little, and even in other cases the loss was not great. Many dishes were saved 
by raised borders on shelves on which they were standing. It often happened that loose 
articles fell from the lower shelves in pantries, etc., and remained on the topmost ones. 
Windows. — It is an interesting fact that out of a total of thousands of windows in 
the area covered by this investigation, only a few were broken. Leaving out of account 
the windows of houses that were thrown down, the total number broken by the shaking 
or compression of the walls, or in other ways directly due to the shock, was probably 
not greater than 40. In several nurseries only a few panes were broken in many glass- 
covered hot-houses. The same general fact holds true over the whole of the San Fran- 
cisco Peninsula, and in other regions affected by the earthquake that were visited by 
the writer. The majority of the windows that were broken were in brick buildings. 
That the windows were subjected to great stresses is shown by the fact that many of 
those made of parts joined by lead bulged considerably, and many were thrown upward 
with sufficient force to break their locks. In about 20 per cent of the cases where win- 
dows were raised in this way the glass was broken. 
A resistant type of structure. — The data collected in this region appear to show that 
a house, to withstand an earthquake, should be constructed about as follows: The build- 
ing should be of wood, and a wooden sill should be bolted to a deep-laid concrete founda- 
tion, the top of which should be but little above the level of the ground. It should be 
ceiled with wood within. Shelves for dishes should be closed in with doors, or should 
at least have strips along the front edges. The chimneys should be laid with cement 
mortar and boxed from a foot or two below the roof to the top, and the parts above 
the roof should be braced with iron rods. The lower the structure the less strain it will 
be subjected to. Such a building would be practically proof against earthquakes having 
an intensity below X of the Rossi-Forel scale. 
THE MANNER AND DIRECTION OF MOVEMENT. 
Kinds of movements. — 'The shock of the earthquake was heavy enough to cause almost 
everything to move somewhat, and heavy objects were displaced as often as lighter ones, 
There were many cases of inconsistency in the movements, such as the displacement 
of heavy articles like pianos and stoves, where frail cups or vases remained in place; 
or such as the difference in motion exhibited by articles standing side by side. In 
many cases chimneys were thrown a distance of 6, 10, 15, and even 20 feet; a vase was 
thrown 6 feet, an accordion 4 feet, milk 8 feet. Hanging things were set in motion, 
liquids were spilt, and loose articles tipt over. 
Upward movements in many different places were attested by the fact that sliding 
windows were raised several inches with such foree as to break the iron latches that 
held them down. Possibly these windows were jerked up by their weights, which 
would have been thrown down with force had the houses been subjected to sharp verti- 

* Steel frames and reénforced concrete structures are also of course eminently well adapted to resist 
earthquake shocks of high intensity, A.C. L. 
