John Milne (30 December 1850 – 31 July 1913) was a British

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

and mining

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

who worked on a horizontal

seismograph A seismometer is an instrument that responds to ground noises and shaking such as caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and explosions. They are usually combined with a timing device and a recording device to form a seismograph. The output ...

Biography

Milne was born in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, England, the only child of John Milne of

Milnrow Milnrow is a suburban town within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on the River Beal at the foothills of the South Pennines, and forms a continuous urban area with Rochdale. It is east of Rochdale to ...

, and at first raised in

Tunshill Tunshill is a hamlet at the northeastern edge of Milnrow, within the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the foothills of the Pennines, east of Rochdale and north-northeast of Oldham. It include ...

and later moved to

Richmond, London Richmond is a town in south-west London,The London Government Act 1963 (c.33) (as amended) categorises the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as an Outer London borough. Although it is on both sides of the River Thames, the Boundary Commiss ...

, and then in 1895 to the Isle of Wight with his wife. He was educated at

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public research university located in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of King George IV and the Duke of Wellington. In 1836, King's ...

(AKC in Applied Science, 1870) and the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

Early career

In the summers of 1873 and 1874, following a recommendation by the

, Milne was hired by

Cyrus Field Cyrus West Field (November 30, 1819July 12, 1892) was an American businessman and financier who, along with other entrepreneurs, created the Atlantic Telegraph Company and laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858. Early ...

as a mining engineer to explore

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

in search of coal and mineral resources. During this time he also wrote papers on the interaction of ice and rock, and visited

Funk Island Funk Island is a small, barren, isolated, uninhabited island approximately northeast of Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland, Canada. Geography The island is roughly trapezoidal in shape, with a maximum length of 0.8 km (½ mile) and a maximum wid ...

, writing another paper on the newly extinct

great auk The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus ''Pinguinus''. It is not closely related to the birds now known as penguins, wh ...

. In December 1873 Milne accompanied Dr

Charles Tilstone Beke Charles Tilstone Beke (10 October 1800 – 31 July 1874) was an English traveller, geographer and Biblical critic. Biography Born in Stepney, London, the son of a merchant in the City of London, for a few years Beke engaged in mercantile pursuit ...

on an expedition to determine the true location of

Mount Sinai Mount Sinai ( he , הר סיני ''Har Sinai''; Aramaic: ܛܘܪܐ ܕܣܝܢܝ ''Ṭūrāʾ Dsyny''), traditionally known as Jabal Musa ( ar, جَبَل مُوسَىٰ, translation: Mount Moses), is a mountain on the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. It is ...

in northwest Arabia. He took the opportunity to study the geology of the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a l ...

and passed on a collection of fossils to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

Career in Japan (1875–1895)

Milne was hired by the

Meiji government The was the government that was formed by politicians of the Satsuma Domain and Chōshū Domain in the 1860s. The Meiji government was the early government of the Empire of Japan. Politicians of the Meiji government were known as the Meiji o ...

of the

Empire of Japan The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent fo ...

as a foreign advisor and professor of mining and geology at the

Imperial College of Engineering The Imperial College of Engineering (工部大学校, ''Kōbudaigakkō'') was a Japanese institution of higher education that was founded during the Meiji Era. The college was established under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Works for ...

in Tokyo from 8 March 1876, where he worked under

Henry Dyer Henry Dyer (23 August 1848 – 25 September 1918) was a Scottish engineer who contributed much to founding Western-style technical education in Japan and Scottish-Japanese relations. Early life Henry Dyer was born on 16 August 1848, ...

and with

William Edward Ayrton William Edward Ayrton, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (14 September 18478 November 1908) was an English physicist and electrical engineer. Life Early life and education Ayrton was born in London, the son of Edward Nugent Ayrton, a barrister, ...

and John Perry. Partly from a sense of adventure and partly because he suffered from

seasickness Motion sickness occurs due to a difference between actual and expected motion. Symptoms commonly include nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, headache, dizziness, tiredness, loss of appetite, and increased salivation. Complications may rarely include de ...

, he travelled overland across

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

taking three months to reach Tokyo. In 1880, Sir

Alfred Ewing Sir James Alfred Ewing MInstitCE (27 March 1855 − 7 January 1935) was a Scottish physicist and engineer, best known for his work on the magnetic properties of metals and, in particular, for his discovery of, and coinage of the word, ''hys ...

Thomas Gray Thomas Gray (26 December 1716 – 30 July 1771) was an English poet, letter-writer, classics, classical scholar, and professor at Pembroke College, Cambridge, Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is widely known for his ''Elegy Written in a Country ...

and John Milne, all British scientists working in Japan, began to study

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

s following a very large tremor which struck the Yokohama area that year. They founded the

Seismological Society of Japan The or SSJ is a learned society (professional association) with the goal of advancing the understanding of earthquakes and other seismic phenomena. History John Milne joined James Alfred Ewing, Thomas Lomar Gray and Thomas Corwin Mendenhall in ...

(SSJ). The society funded the invention of seismographs to detect and measure the strength of earthquakes. Although 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

in 1880. Milne's instruments permitted him to detect different types of earthquake waves, and estimate velocities. In addition, the foreign professors trained Japanese students including

Seikei Sekiya , alternatively Sekiya Kiyokage, was a Japanese people, Japanese geologist, one of the first seismologists, influential in establishing the study of seismology in Japan and known for his model showing the motion of an earth-particle during an ear ...

who would become, at the Imperial University, the first professor of seismology at any university in the world and his successor,

Fusakichi Omori was a pioneer Japanese seismologist, second chairman of seismology at the Imperial University of Tokyo and president of the Japanese Imperial Earthquake Investigation Committee. Omori is also known for his observation describing the aftersho ...

who refined Milne's instruments to detect and record finer vibrations. In 1881, he had married Tone Horikawa, daughter of Horikawa Noritsune in

Hakodate is a city and port located in Oshima Subprefecture, Hokkaido, Japan. It is the capital city of Oshima Subprefecture. As of July 31, 2011, the city has an estimated population of 279,851 with 143,221 households, and a population density of 412.8 ...

Order of the Rising Sun

In June 1895, Milne was commanded to attend a meeting with His Imperial Majesty Emperor Mutsuhito and following this, returned to England. Soon after his arrival he learned that the Emperor had conferred upon him a rare distinction, The Third Grade of the

Order of the Rising Sun The is a Japanese order, established in 1875 by Emperor Meiji. The Order was the first national decoration awarded by the Japanese government, created on 10 April 1875 by decree of the Council of State. The badge features rays of sunlight ...

and a life pension of 1,000 yen. This was in recognition of Professor Milne's contributions to seismology during his long residence in Japan.

Contributions to anthropology

From 1882, Milne contributed also to

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of behavi ...

. He helped to develop theories on the origin of the Ainu of northern Japan and on the prehistoric racial background of Japan in general. He excavated for several years in the Omori

shell mound A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

and introduced the concept of the

Koro-pok-guru Korpokkur ( ain, コㇿポックㇽ; ja, コロポックル, translit=Koropokkuru), also written Koro-pok-kuru, korobokkuru, korbokkur, or koropokkur,Ainu-Grammatik, vol.2 Hans Adalbert Dettmer, O. Harrassowitz, 1997 koro-pok-guru, are a race of ...

, linked with the

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

. ''Koropok-guru'' is from an Ainu word meaning "the man under the Fuki," i.e. a small person. An Ainu legend concerning their existence seems first to have been reported by Milne. But he believed their prehistoric sites to be only in

Hokkaidō is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel. The la ...

. For northeastern Japan proper, he supported the tradition which ascribed prehistoric sites to the Ainu, who lived in pits and made stone implements and

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

. He considered the inhabitants of the

Kurile Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...

and southern

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and wes ...

to be of a different race, but possibly related to the

. He anticipated the work of scientists who recognised, in excavated materials, different prehistoric cultures for Hokkaidō and northeastern Japan. His first cousin

William Scoresby Routledge William Scoresby Routledge, FRGS (1859–1939) was a British ethnographer, anthropologist and adventurer. With his wife, Katherine Routledge, he completed the first ethnographies of the Kikuyu ( East Africa) and the people of Rapa Nui (Easter ...

(related through his mother, Emma Twycross) was also an anthropologist. With his wife

Katherine Katherine, also spelled Catherine, and Catherina, other variations are feminine Given name, names. They are popular in Christian countries because of their derivation from the name of one of the first Christian saints, Catherine of Alexandria ...

, Routledge worked in the early twentieth century in East Africa with the

Kikuyu Kikuyu or Gikuyu (Gĩkũyũ) mostly refers to an ethnic group in Kenya or its associated language. It may also refer to: * Kikuyu people, a majority ethnic group in Kenya *Kikuyu language, the language of Kikuyu people *Kikuyu, Kenya, a town in Cent ...

and on

Easter Island Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearl ...

(

Rapa Nui Easter Island ( rap, Rapa Nui; es, Isla de Pascua) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is most famous for its nearly ...

Career in England (1895–1913)

After a fire on 17 February 1895 destroyed his home,

observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...

, library, and many of his instruments, Milne resigned his posts on 20 June 1895 and returned to England with his Japanese wife, settling at Shide Hill House, Shide, on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...

, where he continued his seismographic studies. He was made a professor emeritus of

Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

. He was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1887 and persuaded the Society to fund 20 earthquake observatories around the world, equipped with his horizontal pendulum

s. His network initially included seven in England, three in Russia, two in Canada (one in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

and one in Victoria,

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

), three on the east coast of the United States, and one in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

, eventually growing to total forty worldwide. These stations sent their 'station registers' to Milne, where the data formed the basis of Milne's researches. For the next 20 years, Milne's seismological observatory was the world headquarters for earthquake seismology. In 1898, Milne (with

W. K. Burton William Kinnimond Burton (11 May 1856 – 5 August 1899) was a Scottish people, Scottish engineer, photographer and photography writer, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, who lived most of his career in Meiji period Japan. Biography Early life Bur ...

) published ''Earthquakes and Other Earth Movements'', which came to be regarded as a classic textbook on earthquakes. The need for international exchange of readings was soon recognised by Milne in his annual "Shide Circular Reports on Earthquakes" published from 1900 to 1912. This work was destined to develop in the

International Seismological Summary The International Seismological Summary (ISS) is a global earthquake catalog covering the period from 1918 to 1963. The need for an international exchange of seismology data was recognised by John Milne John Milne (30 December 1850 – 31 Jul ...

being set up immediately after the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He delivered the

Bakerian Lecture The Bakerian Medal is one of the premier medals of the Royal Society that recognizes exceptional and outstanding science. It comes with a medal award and a prize lecture. The medalist is required to give a lecture on any topic related to physical ...

to the Royal Society in 1906 entitled ''Recent Advances in Seismology'' and was awarded their

Royal Medal The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...

in 1908. Milne died of

Bright's disease Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that are described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. It was characterized by swelling and the presence of albumin in the urine, and was frequently accompanied b ...

on 31 July 1913 and, after a service in St. Paul's Church, Newport, was buried in the civic cemetery to the north of the church. His Japanese wife Tone returned to Japan in 1919 and died in 1926. To mark the 100th anniversary of Milne's death, a public artwork has been commissioned for Little London near the harbour at Newport. The local Parish Council is providing a detailed explanatory board at Shide.

Notes

References

* Clancy, Gregory. (2006). ''Earthquake Nation: The Cultural Politics of Japanese Seismicity, 1868–1930.'' Berkeley: University of California Press.
OCLC 219039402
* Herbert-Gustar, A. Leslie and Patrick A. Nott. (1980). ''John Milne, Father of Modern Seismology.'' Tenterden: Paul Norbury.
OCLC 476242679
Japanese edition 1981 * * * Robert Stonely. The History of the ''International Seismological Summary'', Geophysical Journal Research (1970), 20, 343–349 * British Geological Survey:Scotland
A Catalogue of Archive Materials associated with John Milne
* * * * * * John Milne
Ice and Ice-work in Newfoundland
:Geological Magazine, July, August, September 1876. * Seismological Journal of Japan, Volume 11, By John Milne, Nihon Jishin Gakkai (Japan)
Earthquake Effects, Emotional and Moral
1887. *
with 30 Plates
* John Milne
The Prehistoric Remains of Japan
Notes on Stone Implements from Otaru and Hakodate, 1879 * * * Seismological Journal of Japan, Jishin Gakkai. Articles by John Milne. Volumes 5, 8,12 (5 articles), 13,15,16 (2 articles), 17 (5 articles). Book digitized by Google and uploaded to the Internet Archive

* John Milne (1878)
III.—Across Europe and Asia.—Travelling Notes
Geological Magazine (Decade II), 5, pp 29–37 * Hudson, Mark
Cave art by the Epi-Jomon people
– Heritage of Japan * John Miln
The Waterway to London
as explored in the "Wanderer" and "Ranger" with sail, paddle and oar.1869 The British Library

External links

John Milne, Father of Modern Seismology
– a site providing much information with many multiple links and references – compiled to celebrate the centenary of his death

(Japanese, includes photographs)
Carisbrooke Castle Museum
– collection includes many thousand origina
historic images

Isle of Wight County Record Office
– original material including manuscripts and images

at inventors.about.com
John Milne: Isle of Wight's earthquake science pioneer
– BBC News article, 31 July 2013
John Milne
– by

International Seismological Centre The International Seismological Centre (ISC) is a non-governmental, nonprofit organisation charged with the final collection, definitive analysis and publication of global seismicity. The ISC was formed in 1964 as an international organisation ...

(ISC) in UK. ISC is the 1964 successor to the ISS {{DEFAULTSORT:Milne, John 1850 births 1913 deaths English people of Scottish descent Alumni of King's College London Associates of King's College People from Rochdale People from Milnrow English geologists British seismologists English inventors Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-period Japan Foreign educators in Japan University of Tokyo faculty British expatriates in Japan Fellows of the Royal Society Royal Medal winners Lyell Medal winners Scientists from Liverpool Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class Deaths from nephritis