John Milne (1850 – 1913) was the English geologist and mining engineer who invented the seismograph.

Japan (1875-1895)

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Milne was professor of mining and geology at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo (from 1886 the Faculty of Engineering of the Imperial University) from March 8, 1876 until June 20, 1895. At the ICE he worked under Henry Dyer and with William Edward Ayrton and John Perry.

In 1880, Sir James Alfred Ewing, Thomas Gray and John Milne, all British scientists working in Japan, began to study earthquakes. They founded the Seismological Society of Japan and the society funded the invention of seismographs to detect and measure earthquakes. All three men worked as a team on the invention and use of seismographs. John Milne is generally credited with the invention of the horizontal pendulum seismograph in 1880.

England (1895-1913)

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In June 1895 he returned with his Japanese wife to England and settled at Shide Hill House on the Isle of Wight. He was made a professor emeritus of Tokyo Imperial University.

References

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• L.K. Herbert-Gustar and P.A. Nott published a biography of Milne John Milne, Father of Modern Seismology in 1980 ISBN 090440434X

External links

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• John Milne on Tokyo University library website (Japanese, includes photographs)
• http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bljohnmilne.htm

English geologists | Seismologists | English inventors | O-yatoi gaikokujin | British people in Japan | 1850 births | 1913 deaths