The ancient Chinese -- renowned for inventing things thousands of years before they actually became useful -- were early dabblers in seismology.
According to the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, the earliest seismoscope was invented by the Chinese philosopher Chang Heng in AD132. This was a large urn on the outside of which were eight dragon heads facing the eight principal directions of the compass. Below each dragon head was a toad with its mouth opened toward the dragon. When an earthquake occurred, one or more of the eight dragon-mouths would release a ball into the open mouth of the toad sitting below. The direction of the shaking determined which of the dragons released its ball.
The instrument is reported to have detected an earthquake 400 miles away that was not felt at the location of the seismoscope.
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