DigitalEuan
1.4K posts

DigitalEuan
@DigitalEuan
NZ Artist. + Universal Binary Principle.










#9: 12-angled stones (oddly specific, isn't it?)



In 132 CE, the Chinese polymath Zhang Heng presented a bronze seismoscope to the Han court that could detect the direction of distant earthquakes. The device used an internal pendulum-and-inertia system. When seismic waves passed through the ground, the outer casing moved with the Earth while the suspended mass lagged behind due to inertia, striking an internal rod that opened the jaw of a directional dragon and dropped a bronze ball. In 138 CE, the device indicated an earthquake to the west even though no shaking was felt in the capital. Days later, messengers confirmed that a major earthquake had struck Longxi, precisely in the western direction indicated by the instrument. The mechanical precision required for this level of sensitivity was so advanced that the device could not be properly maintained after Zhang Heng’s death. Chinese scientists only succeeded in recreating a working replica 2005.























