Seismograph Station, Harvard University
founded 1908
The Harvard University Seismograph Station was founded by Professor Jay Backus Woodworth in April, 1908. It was originally located in the basement of the Geological Museum in Cambridge. The original instruments were two Bosch-Omori 100-kilogram horizontal pendulum seismographs. These were used until October 1928, when they were replaced by Milne-Shaw horizontal pendulum seismographs (numbers 43 and 44).
Recording in the Geological Museum was discontinued in April, 1933 after the Seismograph Station was relocated to the Oak Ridge Observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts, about 25 miles northwest of Cambridge. The Oak Ridge site was run by the Harvard College Observatory. The coordinates for the Seismograph Station were determined by direct astronomical observation under the supervision of Weld Arnold of the Harvard Institute of Geographical Exploration. Recording at Oak Ridge began on March 30, 1933.
The new seismographic vault was constructed as a unit of the research program directed by the Harvard Committee for Geophysical Research. It was financed jointly by the Rockefeller Foundation and by friends of the Division of Geological Sciences at Harvard.
Instruments included a standard E. Howard astronomical regulator for timing. It was checked by radio-received time signals. There were six seismographs in operation. The recording drums for all of the instruments were identical in design and constructed by the Mann Instrument Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two Milne-Shaw horizontal pendulum seismographs were installed along with two Wood-Anderson short-period horizontal torsion seismometers. In addition to these, a Benioff vertical, with short- and long-period galvanometers, was constructed by the Fred C. Henson Company of Pasadena, California.
Recording in the Geological Museum was discontinued in April, 1933 after the Seismograph Station was relocated to the Oak Ridge Observatory in Harvard, Massachusetts, about 25 miles northwest of Cambridge. The Oak Ridge site was run by the Harvard College Observatory. The coordinates for the Seismograph Station were determined by direct astronomical observation under the supervision of Weld Arnold of the Harvard Institute of Geographical Exploration. Recording at Oak Ridge began on March 30, 1933.
The new seismographic vault was constructed as a unit of the research program directed by the Harvard Committee for Geophysical Research. It was financed jointly by the Rockefeller Foundation and by friends of the Division of Geological Sciences at Harvard.
Instruments included a standard E. Howard astronomical regulator for timing. It was checked by radio-received time signals. There were six seismographs in operation. The recording drums for all of the instruments were identical in design and constructed by the Mann Instrument Company of Cambridge, Massachusetts. The two Milne-Shaw horizontal pendulum seismographs were installed along with two Wood-Anderson short-period horizontal torsion seismometers. In addition to these, a Benioff vertical, with short- and long-period galvanometers, was constructed by the Fred C. Henson Company of Pasadena, California.
L. Don Leet, "New recording vault of the Harvard Seismograph Station," <i>Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America</i> 24, no. 1 (January 1934): 47-50.