John Milne in the "John Milne"

Rochdale born John Milne (1850 – 1913) after training as a geologist, he emigrated to Japan and to take up the post of Professor of mining and geology at the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo.

John Milne is generally credited with the invention of the horizontal pendulum seismograph in 1880....which has been used to identify the alleged nuclear explosion in NE North Korea today.

In June 1895 he returned with his Japanese wife to England and settled at Shide Hill House on the Isle of Wight. He was made a professor emeritus of Tokyo Imperial University.

This photograph is in the pub which was owned by his family, which is now a recently built motorway-side hotel on the site of a MIlne family owned pub. Other photographs are displayed showing him with his bride in his IOW house.

He is widely respected as the "Father of Seismography" in Japan, where there is a statue of him, a section of Tokyo University Library devoted to his work.

There are still members of the family in Milnrow.