Project #3 - Long Period Vertical Seismograph

In the late 1920s, Lucien LaCoste, a student in Dr. Arnold Romberg's physics class at the University of Texas, was assigned a project that changed both men's lives and the world of geophysics.

Geophysics has long been an interest of mine, so for my final Weird Science project, I built a long period vertical seismograph based on an original design by Lucien LaCoste. Although not a commercially viable instrument in its initial form, the special spring designed by LaCoste became the heart of the instrument manufactured by the company founded by then Dr. LaCoste and his UT physics professor, Dr. Arnold Romberg.

While electronics is more my forté than mechanics, this instrument is purely mechanical. Initially, I only had recollections of the seismograph built by LaCoste, having heard its history and seen a picture of it more than 40 years ago. By a pure stroke of luck (which I did not get struck by in my previous project), I searched the Internet for any information I could find on the LaCoste seismograph. I found a Denver bookseller, Abracadabra Bookshop, with a manuscript for sale. I sent for it in eager anticipation.