The seismoscope, an instrument that indicates the time of occurrence of an earthquake, was the innovation of a Chinese philosopher known as Chang Hêng yet till this day; it is not clear exactly where he invented the amazing creation. The vessel was six feet in diameter and strangely resembled a wine jar. On the outside of Hêng’s seismoscope were eight dragon heads – each facing a toad – in the direction of the eight compass points known at the time. Interestingly, eight was also considered a lucky number in China. The mouth of each dragon held a ball and in the case of an impending earthquake, one of the eight dragons would simply drop its ball into the mouth of the toad it was facing. The direction of the shaking and the dragon that dropped the ball would then determine which way the earthquake was coming from, giving the Chinese people a rough idea of which cities it might affect. After an earthquake, the instrument was reset awaiting another imminent tremor. Chang’s creative seismoscope served the purpose of detecting an earthquake prior to its incidence so the Chinese would have some time to prepare themselves for the disaster. It proved to be a wonderful creation as many lives were saved due to its existence since the seismoscope gave an indication of the measure of the approaching earthquake hence how disastrous it could be. The instrument is reported to have detected a four hundred mile distant earthquake before it hit the borders of China, both fulfilling its purpose and reinforcing how inventive Chang Hêng really was.