Robert Mallet

Robert Mallet (born June 3, 1810, Dublin, Ireland—died November 5, 1881, London, England) was an Irish geophysicist, civil engineer, and scientific investigator who is sometimes called the “father of seismology” for his work on earthquakes.

He studied at Trinity College and in 1831 took charge of his father’s Victoria foundry, which he expanded into the dominant foundry in Ireland. At age 22 he was elected to the Royal Irish Academy and was also a member of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (now the British Science Association) and the Royal Geological Society of Ireland. He built an early form of seismograph and conducted some of the first controlled seismic explosions with his son John William Mallet in 1849. Following the deadly earthquake in Naples in 1857, he traveled to Italy and painstakingly analyzed the damage. His use of photography during this expedition was a remarkably early scientific use of the new technology, and his findings were published in an award-winning report, The First Principles of Observational Seismology. He is believed to have coined the terms seismology and epicentre.

His engineering commissions included the construction of railroad terminals, the Nore viaduct, the Fastnet Rock lighthouse, and several swivel bridges over the River Shannon. His major innovation in bridge technology was buckled-plate flooring. He also advanced the technique of making large castings of iron, such as heavy cannon.