[BITList] Shocks in Japan

[John Feltham]

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Milne,  John  (1850-1913), geologist and seismologist, was born on 30 December 1850 in Mount Vernon, Liverpool. He was the only child of John Milne, wool-dealer, of 147 Drake Street, Rochdale, and his wife, Emma, daughter of James Twycross of Wokingham. As a boy, Milne was educated in Rochdale and at the Collegiate College, Liverpool. In 1867 he entered King's College, London, and, with a fine academic record, he moved on in 1870 to the Royal School of Mines to specialize in geology under Warrington Smyth. After gaining practical experience of mining engineering both in England and in Germany, he was selected to report on the mineral resources of Newfoundland and Labrador in 1873.

In 1875 Milne was appointed professor of geology and mining at the Imperial College of Engineering, Tokyo. He soon published papers on the geology of Japan and related topics. However, his work in these subjects was eclipsed by his subsequent contributions to seismology. His interest in this subject was aroused forcibly on 22 February 1880, by the strong shock felt in Tokyo from the devastating Yokohama earthquake. Milne proceeded to investigate every aspect of this shock in great detail and realized the inadequacy of the methods then available. Together with his colleagues Thomas Gray and James Ewing, he began a course of research and instrumental development lasting sixteen years and culminating in the successful construction in 1896 of the first seismograph capable of recording major earthquakes occurring in any part of the world. Waves from a distant earthquake were detected by a horizontal pendulum which recorded on photographic paper rotated by a drum. This instrument was soon manufactured by the firm of R. W. Munro. Seismology thus acquired a sound scientific and mathematical basis. Distances from epicentres could be calculated and the complex nature of wave motion thoroughly investigated.

In 1895 Milne left his chair at the college with a generous pension and returned to England with his wife, Tone, daughter of Jokei Horikawa, abbot of the Buddhist temple of Ganjo-ji in Hakodate. The marriage was in 1881; they had no children. The couple settled at Shide Hill House in the village of Shide, Isle of Wight. By that time Milne had published a very considerable number of papers on his work in Japan together with a textbook on seismology, Earthquakes and other Earth Movements (1886). By now, the importance of his work had been recognized in the form of various awards and honours including honorary fellowship of King's College, London, the Lyell medal of the Geological Society (1894), fellowship of the Royal Society (1887), which was later to present him with the royal medal (1908), and conferment by the emperor of the order of the Rising Sun (third grade, 1895).

Milne now set up a seismological observatory at Shide; and did much to encourage the establishment of similar stations in many other countries. As joint secretary to the seismological committee of the British Association he co-ordinated reports of all the earthquakes recorded. He was also the author of two more books, Seismology (1898) and Catalogue of destructive earthquakes, AD 7-AD 1899 (1912), and many more published papers on seismology.

Milne was a kindly man with a keen sense of humour. He enjoyed golf and had a great passion for travel. As a schoolboy he had visited Iceland in his holidays without parental leave; when he took up his position in Tokyo, he travelled there overland via Siberia, Mongolia, and China, arriving some six months after leaving Hull. He died at Shide Hill House on 31 July 1913 following a short illness and was buried on 5 August in the churchyard of St Paul's, Barton, Isle of Wight.

John Wartnaby 

Sources  L. K. Herbert-Gustar and P. A. Nott, John Milne: father of modern seismology (1980) + J. Wartnaby, 'The early work of John Milne', Japanese Studies in the History of Science, 8 (1969), 77-124 + 'Eminent living geologists: Professor John Milne', Geological Magazine, new ser., 5th decade, 9 (1912), 337-46 + L. W. Hoover, 'John Milne, seismologist', Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, 2 (1912), 2-7 + J. P. [J. Perry], PRS, 89A (1913-14), xxii-xxv
Archives Isle of Wight RO, Newport, corresp., notebooks, and papers + Sci. Mus., library | ICL, letters to Sir Andrew Ramsay
Likenesses  photograph, 1900-09, Sci. Mus. [see illus.] · photograph, repro. in 'Eminent living geologists' · photograph, repro. in Hoover, 'John Milne, seismologist'
Wealth at death  £11,917 4s. 5d.: probate, 30 Aug 1913, CGPLA Eng. & Wales




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