No surprise there since a meter is really just a mass humg on a spring. 
However, the spring are pretty amazing.  The ones in the Lacoste
portable instruments are made of fused quartz.  

As far as using one as a seismograph, the meters measure idsplace ment
of the mass on the spring and, as such, detect the earth tides and must
be corrected for this "diurnal" effect.  One problem we do not deal with
when measuring velocity or acceleration.

One thing about the LaCoste meters of interest to those who enclose
their seismographs.  The the works of the meter are heated by an onboard
battery to a temperature at least 5 degrees above the maximum expected
ambient.  The thermostats are sloid state, but were originally a mercury
device.  This , and the heating, required you keep the meter and carrier
fairly upright and the batteries charged or you would suffer a thermal
"tear" in your survey.

Would be interesting to know what kind of meter he had.  
Bob Avakian




..RLLaney@....... wrote:
> 
> Hi all:
> 
> The exerpt below was sent by a friend of mine in Tucson.  Thought the group
> might find it interesting.
> 
> Bob Laney
> Herndon, VA
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> "Dear Bob,
> 
>         I have a pretty good story to pass along to you. You may
> remember Gordon Wieduwilt who was a local geophysical contractor here in
> Tucson for many years. He is now mostly retired, works about 1/4 time
> out of a small office in his home. He was down in Mexico last week doing
> a gravity survey and at one station he had a terrible time getting the
> meter to stabilize so that he could take a reading. He turned it off and
> on several times and still the same peg-to-peg needle deflection.
> 
>         Finally he realized that a large earth quake was probably in
> progress somewhere. It turned out the be the one in Turkey last Thursday
> afternoon. It took the shock about 103 minutes to arrive in northern
> Mexico which works out to about 6,000 feet per second.
> 
>         I'd be curious to know if you detected that one as well. Maybe
> we don't need seismometers but only gravity meters."
> 
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> 
> _____________________________________________________________________
> 
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> 
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