(Born: 1850; Died: 1913) English mine engineer.

John Milne was born in Liverpool in 1850 and attended the Royal School of Mines, graduating as a mining engineer. In 1875 he accepted an appointment as Professor of Mining Engineering and Geology in the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo. He became expert in the new science of seismology, invented the seismograph, and wrote two important books on seismology, one a textbook(Earthquakes and other Earth Movements, 1891) and a famous illustrated report on The Great Earthquake in Japan, 1891, 1891.After twenty years in Japan, he returned to England, settling upon the Isle of Wight where he established a seismological station, and where he died in 1913. It was here that he first attempted to measure the velocity of earthquake waves passing through the deeper layers of the crust, but in this attempt he was only partially successful. Azimov, Biogr.Encycl.Sci & Techn, p.372-3.

Biographical references: BBA: I 769, 369-373. • WBI.

1. English, 1880 [Collection catalog].
[Contained within an ornate double bordered box:] Catalogue | Of | The Minerals, Rocks, Fossils, Shells, And Casts. | Contained In | The | Geological Department | Of | The Imperial College Of Engineering | (Kobu-dai-gakko). | Tokei: | Printed At The College. | 1880.

[6], i-iv, 1-183, [1] p. Page size: 216 x 148 mm.

Contents: [2 pgs], Title page, verso blank.; [1 pg], "Collection | Of | Japanese Minerals."; [1 pg], Blank.; [1 pg], "Introduction."-signed John Milne, 18 May 1880.; [1 pg], Blank.; I-IV, "Index."; 1-183, Text of catalogue.; [1 pg], Blank.

Rare. This Catalogue is a decription of specimens held in the collections of the Imperial College in Tokyo, Japan. Unfortunately the text was printed on an extremely perishable paper and few copies have survived to the present day. The classification of these minerals is similar to that given in Dana's Manual of Mineralogy. The short descriptions which are appended to many of these specimens must not be considered as having reference to anything farther than the particular specimen to which the are attached, and this more especially true in the case of specimens like coals, where to judge of the coals of a district from the description of one small specimen might lead to serious mistakes. In many cases there are a large number of specimens of the same species but which have been obtained from different localities, these are classed together according to the provinces, the a provinces being classed together according to Gobi Shichido. With each group of minerals a number of localities are mentioned from which specimens have not yet been obtained. These localities are without numbers.

Bibliographical references: NUC.

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