On October 16, 1999 I recorded the California " Hector Mine Earthquake"
on a precision clock I was running in New Jersey using Bryan's Microset
timer. Bryan kindly posted the Microset image on his site. I've provided
a link here.
http://www.billtime.com/penpics/fedquake.JPG
What he said on his site at that time in 1999.
/"I was pretty pleased with myself after having recorded this earthquake
in my pendulum. But later in the day I got an email from someone with a
much bigger tale to tell. Bill Scolnik is an horologist who lives in New
Jersey. Bill has collected some of the most precision pendulum clocks
ever made. One of his most accurate clocks was made by the Russian F.M.
Fedchenko. This clock is run in a vacuum tank, in a specially
constructed temperature controlled room, and is mounted to a massive
slab of concrete that rests on resilient pads set in a hole in the
ground to isolate it from outside influences. Bill often records the
performance of his Fedchenko with the MicroSet timer and the "GPS
interface" with a rubidium reference. He happened to be recording his
Fedchenko on the morning of October 16. Later that day he was working on
the clock and noticed a small irregularity in his data. Close
examination revealed that his precision Fedchenko pendulum had been
disturbed by the earthquake in California 2,000 miles away!/
/The graph below shows Bill's data. The clock was running a tiny bit
fast (2.1 seconds per month) but was generally flat. At about 6:04 AM,
18 minutes after it shook southern California, the earthquake rolled
through eastern New Jersey and jostled Bill's pendulum. The disturbance
is clearly visible in the MicroSet graph.
/
/I suppose this should not surprise us. Scientists have long used
precision pendulums to measure gravity and we know that the most
accurate pendulums will change rate subtly when the moon passes
overhead. Still, it's rather impressive to see a pendulum clock respond
to an earthquake so far away."
/
On October 16, 1999 I recorded the California " Hector Mine
Earthquake" on a precision clock I was running in New Jersey using
Bryan's Microset timer. Bryan kindly posted the Microset image on
his site. I've provided a link here.
http://www.billtime.com/penpics/fedquake.JPG
What he said on his site at that time in 1999.
"I was pretty pleased with myself after having recorded this
earthquake in my pendulum. But later in the day I got an email
from someone with a much bigger tale to tell. Bill Scolnik is an
horologist who lives in New Jersey. Bill has collected some of
the most precision pendulum clocks ever made. One of his most
accurate clocks was made by the Russian F.M. Fedchenko. This
clock is run in a vacuum tank, in a specially constructed
temperature controlled room, and is mounted to a massive slab of
concrete that rests on resilient pads set in a hole in the
ground to isolate it from outside influences. Bill often records
the performance of his Fedchenko with the MicroSet timer and the
"GPS interface" with a rubidium reference. He happened to be
recording his Fedchenko on the morning of October 16. Later that
day he was working on the clock and noticed a small irregularity
in his data. Close examination revealed that his precision
Fedchenko pendulum had been disturbed by the earthquake in
California 2,000 miles away!
The graph below shows Bill's data. The clock was running a
tiny bit fast (2.1 seconds per month) but was generally flat. At
about 6:04 AM, 18 minutes after it shook southern California,
the earthquake rolled through eastern New Jersey and jostled
Bill's pendulum. The disturbance is clearly visible in the
MicroSet graph.
I suppose this should not surprise us. Scientists have long used
precision pendulums to measure gravity and we know that the most
accurate pendulums will change rate subtly when the moon passes
overhead. Still, it's rather impressive to see a pendulum clock
respond to an earthquake so far away."