Article
ID: CBB001422088

Maurice Ewing, Frank Press, and the Long-Period Seismographs at Lamont and Caltech (2014)

unapi
Seismology Geology Science and technology, relationships 20th century United States Press, Frank Ewing, William Maurice California Institute of Technology

The name attached to a scientific instrument may identify the scientist(s) who contributed most to its design or, as was the case with the first successful long-period seismographs, the scientist(s) who captured credit for this achievement. These notable instruments were developed at the Lamont Geological Observatory in the early 1950s and funded by the Department of Defense. They were used to understand the structure of the earth and to detect underground bomb tests. Maurice Ewing and Frank Press, the principal investigators, were alpha males whose competition with each other resembled the Cold War relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Press moved to the Seismological Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in 1955. Lehner and Griffith, a small Pasadena firm that was closely connected with the Seismo Lab, began manufacturing "Press-Ewing" seismographs in 1958, and Press was soon applying this term to all devices of this sort, even those that had gone before. Keywords Seismograph, Maurice Ewing, Frank Press, Cold War, eponymy

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001422088/

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Authors & Contributors
James Evans
Westwick, Peter J.
Walling, Olivia Weaver
Valencius, Conevery Bolton
Tietge, David J.
Solovey, Mark
Journals
Science in Context
Technology and Culture
Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics
Social Studies of Science
Science, Technology and Human Values
Physics in Perspective
Publishers
Virginia Polytechnic Institute
University of North Carolina Press
Ohio University Press
Nauka
Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West; University of California Press
University of Minnesota
Concepts
Science and technology, relationships
Seismology
Geology
Science and politics
Economics
Environment
People
Frits Warmolt Went
Press, Frank
Jeffreys, Harold
Fowler, William A.
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
21st century
20th century, late
20th century, early
18th century
Places
United States
California (U.S.)
Japan
Canada
Soviet Union
Brazil
Institutions
California Institute of Technology
Kellogg Radiation Laboratory
University of Chicago
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