The general result as to the nature of the disturbance was that two
distinct sets of vibrations were set up by the blow. In one set the
direction of motion was along a line joining the point of observation
with the point from which the disturbance emanated; in the other set
the direction of motion was at right angles to that line. The nature
of the resultant motion will be gathered from fig. 10, which is taken
from the records drawn by the rolling sphere seismograph at a distance
of 50 feet, 100 feet, and 200 feet respectively from the point where
the ball struck the ground. The direct or normal vibrations reached
the instrument first, and were followed at an interval depending on
the distance of the instrument from the origin by the transverse
vibrations. From the records of these two sets of vibrations as
separated by the bracket seismographs, combined with the known rate of
motion of the glass plate, the velocity of transmission was found to
be, for normal vibrations 446–438 feet per second, and for transverse
vibrations 357–353 feet per second.
The effect of the hill in cutting off the disturbance seemed to be
slight, but the direction of the vibrations which ascended the side
was mostly transverse. The pond, on the other hand, seemed completely
to cut off the disturbance, which, however, gradually crept round the
side, so that only a comparatively small triangular area was in shadow.
The amplitude of the vibrations diminished directly as the distance
increased for some distance from the origin, but at greater distance
the rate of diminution seemed to be slower. The transverse vibration
seemed to die out less quickly than the normal vibrations.[9]
These experiments were afterwards very considerably extended by the
author. In these later experiments charges of from one to two pounds of
dynamite were placed in bore-holes of various depths and exploded by
means of electricity. The results obtained confirmed the conclusions
already arrived at from the former experiments. The experiments on
velocity, however, seemed to indicate that the higher the initial
impulse the greater was the velocity. The velocity of propagation of
the transverse vibrations seemed to approach more and more to that of
the directed vibrations as the distance from the origin of disturbance
increased. Fig. 11 shows the nature of the record obtained from the
explosion of two pounds of dynamite at the bottom of a bore-hole eight
feet deep. These records show the interval of time which elapsed
between the arrival of the normal and the transverse vibrations at
points distant 100, 250, and 400 feet from the bore-hole. In the case
of the 100-feet station it will be observed that the motion towards the
origin is greater than that from the origin. It is also to be noticed
that the period of vibration becomes greater as the distance from the
origin increases.
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