Hi Angel/ Dave
    I tried to look at the photos w/o success ????. I remembered a Scientific American amateur Scientist artical of 11/1973 which showed a sensitive tilt meter construction ( with Mercury however.) which used capacitive sensors at the ends. Is it similar to yours? While I was blowing the dust of the old issues I ran across the SG seismometer 9/1975 article. This is what started me down the amateur seismologist path.
  Regards
  Barry

Angel  wrote:
  Hello Jim,

An FMES is a bunch of plumbing filled with water. Well, that is a bit over
simplified but no too much. Fluid Mass Electrolytic Seismometer. Once
you have the knack of it you can make one in just a few hours, not
counting the electronics. With just your left hand it might take you a
bit longer.

Basically two transducer about a meter apart joined by some tubing so
the electrolytic fluid (water and antifreeze) find a level within the
transducers. The transducers form part of a sensitive resistive bridge
which senses the motion of the fluid. Like I said this is over
simplified but not by far.

There is a yahoo group that chats now and then on building them and
trading ideas, you can see some photos at the groups site:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fmes/

Dave Nelson is the creator of FMES and he might pipe (no pun intended)
in and say a bit more. Dave might have some more current pictures.

angel



Saturday, April 22, 2006, 11:09:06 AM, you wrote:

> what is a FMES-????
> I broke my right hand so am typing left-handed...jim

> -- Angel wrote:
> Hi All,

> Here is a jpeg of how the Siberia 7.7 (or 7.6) looked like here in
> Panama on a 1 meter long FMES oriented N/S with a 24 bit digitizer.

> http://www.volcanbaru.com/quakes/FMES_Siberia_7-7.jpg

> Each line is 30 minutes long.

> FMES's are easy to build and are great for tele-seismic stuff and
> pretty good for the local events also.

> regards,

> Angel





Hi Angel/ Dave
  
  I tried to look at the photos w/o success ????. I remembered a Scientific American amateur Scientist artical of 11/1973 which showed a sensitive tilt meter construction ( with Mercury however.) which used capacitive sensors at the ends. Is it similar to yours? While I was blowing the dust of the old issues I ran across the SG seismometer 9/1975 article. This is what started me down the amateur seismologist path.
  
Regards
  
Barry

Angel <sismos@..............> wrote:
  
Hello Jim,

An FMES is a bunch of plumbing filled with water. Well, that is a bit over
simplified but no too much. Fluid Mass Electrolytic Seismometer. Once
you have the knack of it you can make one in just a few hours, not
counting the electronics. With just your left hand it might take you a
bit
 longer.

Basically two transducer about a meter apart joined by some tubing so
the electrolytic fluid (water and antifreeze) find a level within the
transducers. The transducers form part of a sensitive resistive bridge
which senses the motion of the fluid. Like I said this is over
simplified but not by far.

There is a yahoo group that chats now and then on building them and
trading ideas, you can see some photos at the groups site:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fmes/

Dave Nelson is the creator of FMES and he might pipe (no pun intended)
in and say a bit more. Dave might have some more current pictures.

angel



Saturday, April 22, 2006, 11:09:06 AM, you wrote:

> what is a FMES-????
> I broke my right hand so am typing left-handed...jim

> -- Angel wrote:
> Hi All,

> Here is a jpeg of how the Siberia 7.7 (or 7.6) looked like here in
> Panama