#microseism

After my eyes became accustomed to the darkness I noticed that the spot seemed quite unsteady. Clearly this was more that what could be due to the continuous trembling of the earth, to the 'microseisms' that are caused by the pounding of the ocean waves on the shores of the Continent. It was due to the movements of my own eyes which in the darkness were not steadied by the surrounding picture of solid objects. Soon the luminous point gave me the feeling of being aboard a gently and irregularly moving vessel, so I braced a pencil on a piece of the apparatus and held it close to the luminous point. Now the point seemed steady and I felt as if I had come back to solid ground again. This was about the time of the actual shot. Nothing happened or could have happened. About a quarter of an hour was required for the shock to travel, deep under the Pacific basin, to the Californian coast. I waited with little patience, the seismograph making at each minute a clearly visible vibration which served as a time signal. At last the time signal came that had to be followed by the shock from the explosion and there it seemed to be: the luminous point appeared to dance wildly and irregularly. Was it only that the pencil which I held as a marker trembled in my hand? I waited for many more minutes to be sure that the record did not miss any of the shocks that might follow the first. Then finally the film was taken off and developed. By that time I had almost convinced myself that I must have been mistaken and that what I saw was the motion of my own hand rather than the signal from the first hydrogen bomb. Then the trace appeared on the photographic plate. It was clear and big and unmistakable. It had been made by the wave of compression that had traveled for thousands of miles and brought the positive assurance that Mike was a success.