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was to drive a wedge between two perspectives that had previously been
fused: the geophysical question of the origins of an earthquake and the
practical question of the earthquake's effects.
Holden would not be the one to carry this research program forward.
in the late 1880s and early 1890s, just as he was getting his seismological
project off the ground, he found himself presiding over a fast-growing com-
munity at the Lick. Scientists brought wives, children, and pets, and with
them new challenges for Holden as director. in the close quarters on the
mountain, Holden's strident manner became a tragic flaw. even an admiring
colleague observed in a biographical note that Holden “never seemed able
to make an intimate and lasting friendship.” 89 in one case, an astronomer's
son developed malaria, which the father blamed on poisoned well water
at Mount Hamilton; Holden refused to have the well cleaned, even after
testing determined that it was contaminated. Among the colleagues Holden
managed to turn against him was George Davidson, another astronomer
with an interest in earthquakes who might otherwise have been an effective
collaborator. Most significantly, the fights that erupted on the mountain
could not be contained there. Holden was attacked in the California press
in ways that could not have helped his efforts to cultivate relations with
amateurs. He became known, for instance, as “The emperor of Mt. Hamil-
ton” for restricting public access to the observatory, which the papers duly
noted was supported by taxpayers' money. 90 Another sympathetic colleague
explained: “The trouble with Holden was that his personal traits offended
and antagonized everyone that he had to deal with intimately. They had
always done so.” 91 Holden was forced to resign from the Lick in 1897 and
never obtained another scientific position. He managed to support himself
with his pen until his death in 1914, but his seismographic network col-
lapsed along with his scientific career.
Into the Wild
By the time of the founding of the international Seismological Association
in Strasbourg in 1901, it was clear that the United States was trailing far
behind other countries in seismology. Harry Reid, a professor of geology at
Johns Hopkins, attended the iSA's meetings as the American representative.
in 1903, he began keeping a record of earthquakes in the United States,
drawing primarily on newspaper reports and any instrumental data he
could get his hands on. Apparently at Reid's request, the Weather Bureau
urged its observers to send more detailed reports on felt motion directly
to the director of the US Geological Survey. As of 1905 the only regularly
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