Suspicious terrain - the world's first earthquake detection device?

The head of a finely sculpted dragon stuck on a vase-like object suddenly released a metal ball into the mouth of a bronze toad waiting below. This astonished the Han emperors, because it seemed to be a warning for an imminent earthquake somewhere in Chinese territory. At the capital of Luoyang, no tremors were recorded. But only a few days later, a galloping rider came and brought along an important news, an earthquake that had just devastated Lung Tay, which was located 700 kilometers from the capital. 'That's when everyone has to acknowledge the potential power of this tool.'

Since then, officials working at the National Bureau of Astronomy and Calendar are required to pay attention to all the dynamics of the aforementioned equipment - the world's first seismic device. China has experienced earthquakes since at least 780 BC, earlier than any other country in the world, and China is also the country that has suffered two of the worst earthquakes in history. . For that reason, it is not surprising that a Chinese official , Zhang Heng, was probably the first person to create an earthquake prediction tool, right from the year 132 AD. The outstanding story is about Zhang Hanh, which was carefully rewritten in the Late Han Dynasty, one of China's most famous historical books.

Now is the time to talk about this strange device. Wearing the shape of a vase over 2 meters high, around the tool is attached to 8 dragon heads that look in the direction of the compass, below are 8 toads waiting to be ready. If the dragon releases the metal ball that is holding its mouth into the toad's belly, that direction will have an earthquake. Zhang Xing calls it 'geological suspicion' , meaning 'tool to monitor the earth's wind and movement'. The birth of this device came from his beliefs, when he thought that earthquakes were related to the movement of air, especially when storms encountered obstacles on the way. they, like a mountain.

However, the reason for his decision to manufacture earthquake forecasting equipment was that at the time, it was believed that earthquakes only occurred when a certain official in the dynasty made the wrongdoing.'The cracked sky and the Earth shake' , it is one of many sentences spoken by Chinese people when talking about politics and daily life. After an earthquake struck and shook the capital, Zhang Xing reported to the emperor and described the disaster as a divine rebuke to the failure of the new policy, in recruiting talented and virtuous people for parts of the court. If the movements in the ground are an omen for corruption cases, a tool to detect earthquakes will help a lot for the emperor's emperors. However, the courtesans did not feel that way.

On one occasion, the young emperor was thought to have given Zhao Zhang and the eunuchs to the room, asking him to name the hypocrites who were there. These people glared at Truong Hanh with such intimidation that he had to say well about them. However, later, by repeatedly exposing the useless incompetence of eunuchs, they hated and criticized Truong Hanh, causing his career in the court to fail. Reflecting his difficulties in life in the royal palace through verses also helped him become one of the famous poets in China.

About Truong Hanh

Truong Hanh.

Before embarking on a place of authority, Truong Hanh won at least a few decades in his life to live in a place away from the capital. He was born in 78 in an intellectual family but not wealthy. In 112, after studying non-stop, he was invited to the capital to hold an office here. Thanks to his talent, Zhang Xing later promoted and promoted, including a period in which he was held as an astrologer. Inspired by the sky, he was the first Chinese to explicitly describe the earth as a spherical shape with the equator, and show the difference of the sun during the year.

He also said that he designed a device called 'chaos' , the world's first water powered astronomical device. In 134, Truong Hanh had the right to be in charge of the palace, allowing him to give advice to the emperor. Despite being a rare talent, Truong Hanh's attitude to the eunuchs at that time made his name and his great inventions never recorded in history books. He was the one who opposed the idea of ​​revising the Chinese calendar and translating Han history based on unfounded teachings, like the prophecy of Nostradamus.

However, this idea was very popular with the king and courtiers. In 136, perhaps because of too much political pressure, Truong Hanh left the capital, held a small office and came back in 138 to live a peaceful life at home. Soon after, he was called the capital city but died shortly after - in 139.

Geographical suspicion

Until now, the seismograph by the inventor Truong Hanh is still a big mystery, partly because of the absence of trace, and partly because seismologists still do not agree with the mechanism of party operation. in this device. Post Han Dynasty has a passage about geography, but the description is very limited about what is inside: 'A cylinder in the center has the ability to move horizontally in 8 directions to close or open the dragon's mouth' .

According to historian Christopher Cullen, an ancient Chinese researcher, ' Device descriptions give us enough detail to lead to many reconstruction efforts, but still not clear enough to do so. most accurately '. According to him, the central cylinder described in the Chinese history book must be an extremely sensitive pendulum. However, there is not enough evidence to know how this mechanism can keep mechanical friction low enough to detect extremely light movements of the ground, more than human senses.

Geographical suspicion.

In addition, what we may never know is whether the earthquake of the seismograph created by Truong Hanh is true as recorded in the Late Han Dynasty, the work was completed around 440 years, a century after his death. In addition, this finding has not been mentioned in China's previous historical work. Cullen doubted the ability of the terrain to be influenced by the "fans" , as they admired Zhang Hanh's mechanical talent.

Although there are still many doubts, however, it is also impossible to prevent experts from China, Japan and some other countries in their efforts to recreate suspected terrain. Wang Zhenduo - the curator of the Chinese National Museum, restored the terrain twice: one was completed in 1936 with a pendulum mounted inside, the other was made in 1950 and equipped. an inverted pendulum. Unfortunately, no model can react to real earthquakes, including the 1976 Tangshan earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people.

This earthquake also shocked Beijing, which hosts Wang's second suspected earthwork reconstruction model. About a decade ago, the team of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences headed by geophysicist Feng Rui, developed and tested a seismic model that relied on transfer. dynamics of pendulum. Currently this product is being preserved at the Beijing Museum of Science and Technology, however, it has not yet discovered an earthquake, as soon as 2008 happened an earthquake caused Sichuan island. .

At the London Museum of Natural History, there is another suspicious terrain model, which is based on Wang's design, and is also used by BBC to make a broadcast. in the 1970s. Currently, this model has not had the opportunity to 'try' due to seismic stability in the UK. However, its popularity shows that Zhang Xing's invention not only fascinates Chinese science circles, but also a world science.