Earthquake Building Overseas: Military Engineers, Cyclonic-Seismic Affinity and the Spanish Dominion in the Philippines, 1860–1898
2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/19378629.2014.903491
ISSN1940-8374
Autores Tópico(s)Water management and technologies
ResumoAbstractBetween the 1860s and the 1890s, Spanish military engineers assigned to the Philippines carried out important advances in earthquake-resistant construction. Within the context of military campaigns against Moro rebels in Mindanao and other islands, engineers like Rafael Cerero and Manuel Cortés sought anti-seismic solutions in rational mechanics. By 1880, the Philippines had become a benchmark: the Spanish colony had one of the earliest established regulations in the world for earthquake construction. This story sheds new light for a revision of the history of early earthquake engineering; i.e., an approach and achievements based on military expertise, rather than on experimental science or civil engineering. This revision also includes the innovative role played by these engineers in studying simultaneously – from the perspective of a unity of action – the effects of earthquakes and cyclones on the stability of buildings.Keywords: earthquake engineeringmilitary engineersseismologybuildingEmpireSpainPhilippines Notes1A paradigmatic case is the exhaustive survey by Dewey and Byerly, "The Early History."2A good example of this kind of studies is the classic work by Charles Davison, The Founders.3Schweitzer, "The Birth."4Housner, "Historical View," 14.5See, e.g. Williams, "Earthquake Engineering," 173–5.6Clancey, Earthquake Nation, 63–90.7Geschwind, California Earthquakes, 8–18.8These authors have stressed that in Italy the seismological impetus came from researchers belonging principally to the academic and religious world and expressed itself in the invention of seismoscopes and seismographs. Other valuable sources are: Ferrari, Two hundred years, and Ferrari, Gli strumenti sismici storici.9In Britain, Mallet proposed and undertook three research lines to study earthquakes; among them, experiments by charges of gun-powder to measure the velocity of elastic waves in different rocks. In Tokyo, Milne and Gray cultivated experimental seismology in the early 1880s, producing artificial seismic disturbances by dynamite charges, taking their new recorders into the field and measuring the amplitude and duration of disturbances. See Wood, "Robert Mallet and John Milne," 111–2, 129–30. For Milne's experiments with buildings to study earthquake resistance: Milne, "Experiments,"; Milne, "Earthquakes."10It is surprising that neither Housner nor the mentioned authors made the slightest reference to the seismological studies in the Philippines. The oblivion has been general. The only allusion found – in the classic study of Dewey and Byerly, "The Early History," 194 – states thus: "it was made known that a modified form of the instrument [Cecchi's seismograph] was installed in Manila."11In Lisbon, a standardized construction system (gaiola) was incorporated for the reconstruction of the town after the earthquake of 1755. See: Paula and Cóias, "Rehabilitation." In Calabria, the Bourbon government introduced a system of building (casa baracatta) based on the notion that structures had to respond to earthquake disturbances as units. See: Tobriner, "La Casa Baracatta," 131–8. For the initiatives in anti-seismic engineering in San Francisco, see: Tobriner, Bracing for Disaster.12In addition to this, while the gaiola and baracatta systems were anti-seismic models prescribed by codes for a town (Lisbon) and a region (Calabria), respectively, the Spanish government's regulations affected a whole country (the Philippine Archipelago).13On the dilemma between stone building that could withstand hurricanes and anti-seismic construction, presented to British authorities in the Caribbean Islands a century earlier, see Mulcahy, Hurricanes, 125–6. For a general overview of geophysics in Spain, see Anduaga, Geofísica. See also Anduaga, "Earthquakes, Damages."14Stories and discussions that reflect the latent tension among different groups of scientists in California over practically oriented seismic approaches and seismometric approaches (including microseismology) have been described by Coen, The Earthquake Observers, 187–266.15Bankoff, "Bodies," 285–306.16There is ample literature on the role of Spanish military engineers in overseas construction. See: Capel, Sánchez and Moncada, De Palas a Minerva, 1988; Piqueras, Las comunicaciones en Filipinas; Laorden, La obra civil; and González Tascón, Ingeniería.17This aspect has been overlooked by Ramírez, El Terremoto. For a well-substantiated and rigorous study, see: Merino, Arquitectura y Urbanismo.18This fact was underlined by two of the most comprehensive seismic catalogues in the Philippines: Repetti, "Catalogue of Philippine Earthquakes," 1946; and Garcia et al., Philippines, 47–54.19Ramírez, El Terremoto, 40. The losses caused in public buildings were estimated by the chief architect of the Treasury at 1,273,000 pesos. Merino, Arquitectura y Urbanismo, 35; and "Informe del arquitecto Juan Caballero sobre los edificios del Estado destruidos en el terremoto," 21 June 1863, Overseas 1378, File 162, National Historical Archives of Spain (hereafter cited as AHN).20"Comunicado de Rafael Echagüe al Ministerio de Ultramar," n. 414, Overseas 5182, AHN. See also: Merino, Arquitectura y Urbanismo, 35–9.21Selga, Relación oficial, 10–1.22We are referring to the ecclesiastic, civil, naval, and military administrations of the government.23For example, the lieutenant-colonel of Engineers, Ramón Somoza, inspected the famous Church of the Franciscan Venerable Third Order. See: Selga, "El terremoto," 71–2.24On the public controversy between engineers and architects sparked in journals such as Revista de Obras Públicas or La Arquitectura Española in the second half of the nineteenth century, see: Isac, Eclecticismo, 149–51, 154–6, and 161–3; and Muro, "Ingenieros militares: la formación," 630–5.25"Informe sobre el sistema general de construcciones de los edificios públicos y particulares de las Islas Filipinas," R. Cerero. A summary of this work was translated into English in Transactions of the Seismological Society of Japan 14 (1889): 213–26 (sent by Cerero to Manuel de Heredia).26This Commission and the mentioned report have been overlooked by Ramírez, El Terremoto.27The report in Spanish, which we have not located, was published by Ramón Yrureta Goyena, Discurso leído el día 2 de julio en la apertura anual de los estudios de la Real y Pontificia Universidad de Sto. Tomás de Manila (1912). See: "El discurso del ingeniero Yrureta y los temblores de tierra de 1880," Manila Observatory Archives (MOA).28Mornement and Holloway, Corrugated Iron, 90.29Gaceta de Manila 3, no. 232 (24 October 1863): 1 – quoted in Selga, Índice y breve, 14.30This Board was made up of civil engineers.31"Memoria sobre un sistema de construcción para preservar los edificios de los terremotos," It includes the report submitted to the Spanish minister (16 October 1863); and the Board's report, signed by the secretary Gabriel Rodríguez (30 June 1868). Overseas 522, File 11, AHN.32The author's theory held that earthquakes had their origin in the development of fluids or gases under the Earth's interior.33According to the Board, the platform would be too expensive and too large if one had to consider the effects of its own weight and seismic vibrations.34See: "Gregorio Verdú y Verdú," CitationB-1921, General Military Archives in Segovia, Spain (hereafter cited as AGMS); Merino, Arquitectura y Urbanismo, 150; Muro, "Verdú y Verdú," 713–14.35These were probably the Spanish Army's first experiments with electricity (performed by Verdú since 1845). For these experiments, see: Alayo and Sánchez, "La introducción," 654–6.36Alayo and Sánchez, "La introducción," 655. Verdú, Nuevas minas, 1854. It was translated into French and published in Paris and Brussels in 1855.37See: "Nuevo sistema de construcción de edificios para preservarlos de los terremotos," It includes Verdú's proposal (21 November 1863), and the report by the Public Works Consultative Board (18 February 1865). Overseas 522, File 12, AHN.38Muro, "Verdú y Verdú," 714.39See: the report by the Public Works Consultative Board (18 February 1865).40See: "Manuel Cortés y Agulló," C-3552, AGMS; Merino, Arquitectura y Urbanismo, 122.41The Academy of Engineers in Guadalajara was transferred to Madrid from 1837 to 1839; this is the period wherein Verdú graduated.42See the obituary notice of Manuel Cortés in Memorial de Ingenieros del Ejército, 32 (1915), 487–8.43Cortés, Los terremotos, 1881. The work was written in 1873 and revised in 1880.44Cortés was referring to a quake in 1878. Cortés, Apuntes, 4.45Although admitting the existence of a correlation between earthquakes and volcanoes, Cortés stressed "the hesitation amongst the scholars" in adopting a successful theory. The unresolved controversies between volcanists, neptunists, the advocates of gas expansion, and those of the Earth's rotational movement as the causes for earthquakes – he cited no author – led him to hold on the indeterminability of the seismic causes. Cortés, Los terremotos, 8.46Cortés, Los terremotos, 13–19.47Cortés, Los terremotos, 21–2.48Saderra Masó, La sismología en Filipinas, 69.49Los terremotos en Filipinas en julio de 1880,Extractos del Diario de Manila, 4.50On the damage and victims caused, see (in addition to the extracts from the Diario de Manila): "Telegramas sobre los terremotos de julio de 1880," by Manuel Cortés, Overseas 5245, File 26, AHN.51"Daños causados en construcciones de Luzón por los terremotos," Overseas 471, File 1, AHN.52Centeno, "Memoria," 1883. There is an offprint with additions: Centeno, Memoria sobre los temblores.53Centeno, Memoria sobre los temblores, 7.54On Faura and the Manila Observatory, Saderra Masó, Historia del Observatorio, 45–51.55Cerero, Estudio sobre la resistencia, 60–1.56Saderra Masó, La sismología en Filipinas, 46–8.57Saderra Masó, La sismología en Filipinas, 48; Saderra Masó, Historia, 48; Hidalgo, El P. Federico Faura, 25; Batlló, "Sismologia colonial," 222. They argue that the Italian Ufficio Centrale de Meteorologia e Geodinamica and the Seismological Society of Japan barely had then one year in life.58It was published by the Diario de Manila [see: Los terremotos en Filipinas (1880, 143–52)] and La Oceanía Española [see: Faura, Observaciones sismometricas, 1880]. A more thoroughgoing study was published by the Boletín del Observatorio de Manila, July 1880. On Jesuits and seismology at Manila: Anduaga, "Jesuits."59"Disposiciones relativas a la edificación pública y particular en Filipinas," Overseas 541, File 1, AHN.60See, e.g. the report of reconnaissance by M. López Bayo in "Desperfectos causados en los edificios públicos de la capital de Batangas por los terremotos de 1880," 3 November 1880, MOA. See also: Los terremotos en Filipinas, 77–8.61On this episode, the reference work is Merino, Arquitectura y Urbanismo, 40–7. For a study substantially based on this work, see: Ruiz Gutiérrez, "Las técnicas," 993–1000.62For a brief biography of each of them, see: Piqueras, Las comunicaciones en Filipinas, 226–8.63Gaceta de Manila 15, no. 251 (20 August 1880): 1575–80. It includes: "Reglas más principales a que deberían sujetarse los edificios públicos y particulares que se construyan o reparen en las Islas Filipinas," signed by Manuel Ramírez, 1576–8; and "Dictamen de la Junta Consultiva de Obras Públicas que ha servido de fundamento para la determinación de las reglas anteriores," written by Eduardo López Navarro, 1578–80. Merino, Arquitectura y Urbanismo, 159–78.64Rule number 12. Gaceta de Manila 15, no. 251 (20 August 1880): 1576.65For further details, see the admirable ethno-architectonic study on Philippine building design by Zialcita and Tinio, Philippine Ancestral Houses, 68–70.66The regulations for public and private building could be surprisingly meticulous. For example, when the Board fixed the conditions that had to be met in masonry practices, they declared: "the thickness of the masonry walls will be, at the very least, the fifth part of their height," Rule number 9. Gaceta de Manila 15, no. 251 (20 August 1880): 1576.67Milne, Construction in earthquake countries, 1889, a special issue (14) of the journal of this Society.68Not directly to Milne, but through Fred Wilson, the head of the Barlow & Wilson engineering firm in Manila.69"Extract from the Report," 127–76.70"Building regulations for the town of Norcia," 177–84.71Bertelli, "Against the destructive effects," 206–11.72Lescasse, "Description of a system," 85–93. Originally published in Mémoires de la Societé des Ingénieurs Civils 212 (6 April 1886).73In Manila, Lisbon, and Ischia, Norcia and Liguria, respectively. See: Pownall, "Notes," 9.74Milne, "An epitome of information," 232, 8.75"Disposiciones relativas a la edificación pública y particular en Filipinas," written by the undersecretary of the Ministry of Overseas Affairs, Rafael Ferraz, 29 January 1892, Overseas 541, File 1, AHN.76Rafael Ferraz, 17 February 1892, Overseas 541, File 1, AHN.77"Solicitud de Argentina para conocer las leyes sobre edificación vigentes en Filipinas," 11 January 1895, Overseas 508, File 21, AHN.78Milne, "On construction in earthquake countries," 130 (it includes a subsequent discussion, 136–74).79After the earthquake of August, 1859, the Papal States decreed a stringent building regulation for the town of Norcia, forbidding structures of more than three stories and requiring the use of certain materials. Although they were issued before those of Manila, these regulations were more general and less specific from the perspective of anti-seismic building. See "Building Regulations for the Town of Norcia," 177–83.80Rossi introduced the concept of seismic quall (in the meteorological sense) in order to explain the periodic behavior of microseismic quakes. See: Rossi, La meteorología endógena, 1879–82, vol. 1, 426.81From this he inferred that the resistance of these mountain ranges to the typhoons made a part of the Earth's crust vibrate. See: Algué, The Cyclones, 184–190. See also: Deppermann, "Father José Algué," 301–2.82Cortés, Los terremotos, 80.83Like Cortés, Cerero, Estudio sobre la resistencia, 42–43, also explained the differences between these forces.84"It would be unworthy of this study to deal with such a broad topic" as regards causes; here "I will only strive to deduce the direction and intensity of the forces' caused by these phenomena" (Cerero, Estudio sobre la resistencia, 33).85See the graphs obtained by Cerero, Estudio sobre la resistencia, 16–7.86Cerero, Estudio sobre la resistencia, 18. He also makes a comparative evaluation among the costs of each roof (18–19).87For Cerero's profesional records, see: "Rafael Cerero y Sáenz," C-2661, AGMS. See also: Merino, Arquitectura y Urbanismo, 119; Enciclopedia Universal Ilustrada Europeo-Americana. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, S.A., 12: 1266.88Terremotos de Andalucía, 103.89This view was not shared by geologists Charles Barrois and Albert Offret, who conducted the French Commission that studied the Andalusian earthquakes. See: Bonnin, Durand-Delga and Michard, "La «Mission d'Andalousie»."90Cerero, Estudio sobre la resistencia, 37.91"Building regulations for the town of Norcia," 177–84.92Relazione della Commissione.93See, e.g. Rossi, "Programma dell'Osservatorio," 3–91.94Lescasse, "Description of a system," 85–93.95Repullés y Vargas, Efectos de los terremotos de Andalucía.96For a valuable bibliographic compilation of seismology and vulcanism of the time, see: Charles G. Rockwood, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 1885; and Rockwood, "Recent Earthquake Literature," 242–4.97Housner, "Historical View," 14; Williams, "Earthquake Engineering," 173–5; Davison, The Founders, 177–202; Dewey and Byerly, "The Early History," 195–208; Clancey, Earthquake Nation, 63–90.98"Rafael Cerero y Sáenz," C-2661, AGMS. The report by the Consultative Board of War, Madrid, 9 June 1893.99"Rafael Cerero y Sáenz," C-2661, AGMS.100For example, in this case, bases had to have a suitable section (P) to withstand vertical weight and the normal stress produced by the earthquake (P'). Thus, P=350/(1+0, 004 l2/a2), where P is the percentage fracture load (in kilograms), l the length of the piece (in meters), and a the side of the section (in meters); and ab2 = 6 P'l / R, where a and b are the cross-section dimensions, l the height of support, and R the maximum stress to be exerted on material, Cerero, Estudio sobre la resistencia, 45–59, 77–86.101Valdés, Manual del ingeniero, 794 – quoted in Cerero, Estudio sobre la resistencia, 29. Valdés published a valuable study on the selection of construction lumber. See: Valdés, Descripción, 1858.102"Rafael Cerero y Sáenz," C-2661, AGMS.103On this question, see: López Arroyo, "La aportación de Cerero," xi–xii.104López Arroyo, "La aportación de Cerero," xi. Seismic microzoning is a branch of engineering seismology whose objective is to determine the degree of earthquake danger in regions being built up.105Cerero, Estudio sobre la resistencia, 69.106The calamitous effects of overloading the upper parts of roofs, walls, and chimneys had already been mentioned by Robert Mallet, Great Neapolitan earthquake of 1857, 1862.107On the similarities between the Italian, Spanish and Portuguese regulations, see: Pownall, "Notes," 9–10.108"Earthquakes, or Aseismic Building." The Engineer, 23 August 1883; Repullés y Vargas, Efectos de los terremotos de Andalucía, 1885; Perry and Ayrton, On structures in an earthquake, 1878.109Elastic waves even began to be artificially produced by using explosions with dynamite. As early as 1851, Mallet used artificial explosions to measure the speed of seismic waves in surface rocks. See: Dewey and Byerly, "The Early History," 189; Dean, "Robert Mallet," 39–67.110Herbert-Gustar and Nott, John Milne, 88–9. See also: Wartnaby, "The early work," 77–124.111See: "Building regulations for the town of Norcia," 177–84; Relazione della Commissione, 1883; Milne, Construction in earthquake countries, 1889; Lescasse, "Description of a system," 85–93.112On the experiments and tests performed in Japan using different seismographic apparatus, and the utility of these to deduce the motion of a point of the Earth's surface as a result of the earthquake, see Ewing, Earthquake measurement, 1883; and Perry and Ayrton, On structures in an earthquake, 1878.
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