Editing Seismometer (section)

=== Early Modern designs (1839–1880) ===
In response to a series of earthquakes near [[Comrie, Perth and Kinross|Comrie]] in [[Scotland]] in 1839, a committee was formed in the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]] in order to produce better detection devices for earthquakes. The outcome of this was an inverted pendulum seismometer constructed by [[James David Forbes]], first presented in a report by [[David Milne-Home]] in 1842, which recorded the measurements of seismic activity through the use of a pencil placed on paper above the pendulum. The designs provided did not prove effective, according to Milne's reports.<ref name=Oldroyd /> It was Milne who coined the word ''seismometer'' in 1841, to describe this instrument.<ref name="Ben-Menahem" /> In 1843, the first horizontal pendulum was used in a seismometer, reported by Milne (though it is unclear if he was the original inventor).<ref name=Mallet /> After these inventions, [[Robert Mallet]] published an 1848 paper where he suggested ideas for seismometer design, suggesting that such a device would need to register time, record amplitudes horizontally and vertically, and ascertain direction. His suggested design was funded, and construction was attempted, but his final design did not fulfill his expectations and suffered from the same problems as the Forbes design, being inaccurate and not self-recording.<ref name=Mallet>{{Cite journal |doi=10.1007/s10518-013-9444-5 |issn=1573-1456 |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=715–861 |last=Musson |first=R. M. W. |title=A history of British seismology |journal=Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering |date=2013-06-01 |bibcode=2013BuEE...11..715M |s2cid=110740854 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[Karl Kreil]] constructed a seismometer in [[Prague]] between 1848 and 1850, which used a point-suspended rigid cylindrical pendulum covered in paper, drawn upon by a fixed pencil. The cylinder was rotated every 24 hours, providing an approximate time for a given quake.<ref name=Oldroyd />

[[Luigi Palmieri]], influenced by Mallet's 1848 paper,<ref name=Mallet /> invented a seismometer in 1856 that could record the time of an earthquake. This device used metallic pendulums which closed an [[electric circuit]] with vibration, which then powered an electromagnet to stop a clock. Palmieri seismometers were widely distributed and used for a long time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.geophys.uni-stuttgart.de/oldwww/seismometry/seismo_htm/seismographen.htm |title=Seismographen |access-date=2011-02-18 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110318044124/http://www.geophys.uni-stuttgart.de/oldwww/seismometry/seismo_htm/seismographen.htm |archive-date=2011-03-18}}</ref>

By 1872, a committee in the United Kingdom led by [[James Bryce (geologist)|James Bryce]] expressed their dissatisfaction with the current available seismometers, still using the large 1842 Forbes device located in Comrie Parish Church, and requested a seismometer which was compact, easy to install and easy to read. In 1875 they settled on a large example of the Mallet device, consisting of an array of cylindrical [[bowling pins|pins]] of various sizes installed at right angles to each other on a sand bed, where larger earthquakes would knock down larger pins. This device was constructed in 'Earthquake House' near Comrie, which can be considered the world's first purpose-built seismological observatory.<ref name=Mallet /> As of 2013, no earthquake has been large enough to cause any of the cylinders to fall in either the original device or replicas.