Thomas Lomar Gray (4 February 1850 – 19 December 1908) was a Scottish engineer noted for his pioneering work in

seismology Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

Early life

Born in

Lochgelly Lochgelly ( ; gd, Loch Gheallaidh, IPA: �ɫ̪ɔxˈʝaɫ̪ai is a town in Fife, Scotland. It is located between Lochs Ore and Gelly to the north-west and south-east respectively. It is separated from Cowdenbeath by the village of Lumphinnans. ...

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

, Gray graduated in 1878 from the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

with a BSc in engineering. At Glasgow, he awarded th
Cleland Medal
for "An Experimental Determination of Magnetic Moments in Absolute Measurements.".Rose Polytechnic Institute. (1909).

Career

At the recommendation of

John Milne John Milne (30 December 1850 – 31 July 1913) was a British geologist and mining engineer who worked on a horizontal seismograph. Biography Milne was born in Liverpool, England, the only child of John Milne of Milnrow, and at first raised in ...

, he was hired by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as a foreign advisor and arrived in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

in 1879 to assume to post of Professor of Telegraph Engineering in the Physical Laboratories at the

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 b ...

. Later, while working 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, he helped John Milne and

James 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 ...

develop the first modern

seismometer 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 out ...

s from 1880 to 1895. 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 first modern horizontal-pendulum seismograph. Gray joined Milne and Ewing in founding 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) in 1880. Gray served as Private Assistant to Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Professor of Natural Philosophy in Glasgow University from 1884 to 1887. Thomson also proposed Gray as a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was established i ...

(FRSE) Among Gray's colleagues in Japan was Thomas C. Mendenhall. Inn 1888, Mendenhall encouraged him to join the faculty of Rose Polytechnic Institute of Technology, now Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in

Terre Haute, Indiana Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

. His title was Professor of Dynamic Engineering. He was vice president of Rose Polytechnic from 1891 through 1908. He died on 19 December 1908 and is commemorated in a plaque by the entrance to the old drill hall in LochgellyPlaque commemorating Thomas Gray and Andrew Gray

/ref>

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
* Richter, Charles F. (1958). ''Elementary Seismology.'' San Francisco: W.H. Freeman
OCLC 503991062
* Rose Polytechnic Institute. (1909). ''Rose Polytechnic Institute: memorial volume embracing a history of the Institute, a sketch of the founder, together with a biographical dictionary and other matters of interest.'' Terre Haute, Indiana:
OCLC 2574674
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Thomas Lomar 1850 births 1908 deaths People from Lochgelly Alumni of the University of Glasgow Scottish engineers University of Tokyo faculty Foreign advisors to the government in Meiji-period Japan Foreign educators in Japan Scottish expatriates in Japan