Annunciator

Even careful people who read weather reports in the newspapers sometimes get caught in the rain. Far better off is the man with a barometer in his front hall. Where earthquakes are concerned, predictions and precautions are much harder to disseminate and to take in time, and the results of unpreparedness are much more serious. Scientific laboratories have seismographs and report temblors to the newspapers with all possible speed, but people in California, Hawaii, Japan would be far better off if they could have seismographs in their front halls. More often than not the earth's major convulsions take place within a few hours of the first warning quiver. It was just such an instrument that Dr. Thomas A . Jaggar reported having perfected upon his arrival last week in California from his post at the government volcano observatory at Hilo, Hawaii (TIME, May 3). It was an earthquake annunciator, a simplified seismograph for installation in the cellars of private dwellings, with an indicator to be read upstairs. It would, he said--and his high standing as a scientist removed all doubt from the assertion--record earth shocks from the slightest tremble to rocking imperceptible to the unaided senses. Scientists hailed it as one of the notable geologic advances of the decade.