Chinese inventions The seismograph
Timothy, Leah
Part 9 The Seismograph
The Seismograph: China, Second Century CE. China has always been plagued with earthquakes and the government wanted to know where the economy would be interrupted. A seismograph was developed by the brilliant scientist, mathematician, and inventor Chang Heng (whose works also show he envisaged the earth as a sphere with nine continents and introduced the crisscrossing grid of latitude and longitude). His invention was noted in court records of the later Han Dynasty in 132 CE and it was used to show where earth quakes were happening and would alert the people in the temples and in the city's.
How it works
It works by If there is an earthquake, the copper ball inside the seismograph will drop out from the mouth of one dragon and fall right into the mouth of the toad below. (There are eight dragons representing eight directions.) From the falling direction of the ball, they can judge where an earthquake may happen.
Fun Fact
In addition, in ancient Chinese philosophy, the dragon symbolizes Yang, while the toad symbolizes Yin. Thus, it constitutes the dialectic relationship between Yin and Yang, upwards and downwards, and movement and stillness and if you don't know are a big part of the Daoism religon
By, Timothy Sanchez and Leah Frazeur