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  Chinese inventions by Zhang Heng (seismoscope)

 

Thailand

A copy of the hou feng didongyi seismoscope, an 132 AD invention of Zhang Heng, at Anek Kuson Sala (fig.). This urn-shaped device is able to discern the cardinal direction of an earthquake up to over 500 kilometers away.

 

This was indicated by releasing a bronze ball from the mouth of one of eight projections shaped as a dragon, dropping it into one of the eight mouths of the bronze frogs seated on the floor around the urn and of which each represented a direction of an eight-pointed compass.

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  Chin. inventions by Zhang Heng (seismoscope)