of Engineering to develop the first modern seismograph, from 1880–1895. All three men worked as a team on the invention and use of seismographs, though Milne is generally credited with the invention of the first modern horizontal-pendulum seismograph. Ewing joined Gray and Milne in founding the Seismological Society of Japan (SSJ) in 1880. Return to Dundee In 1883, Ewing returned to his native Dundee to work at the recently established University College Dundee as its first Professor of Engineering. He was appalled by the living conditions he found in many of the poorer areas of the town which he felt compared unfavourably with those in Japan. He worked fervently with local government and industry to improve amenities, in particular sewer systems, and to lower the infant mortality rate. Some of the letters Ewing wrote at this time are now held by Archive Services, University of Dundee along with some of his other papers. A reminder of Ewing's connection with both University College and the city of Dundee is the University of Dundee's Ewing Building which was built in 1954 and named in his honour. The Ewing Building is currently used by the University's School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics. University of Cambridge In 1890, Ewing took up the post of Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics at the University of Cambridge, initially at Trinity College, though he later moved to King's College. At Cambridge, Ewing's research into the magnetisation of metals led him to criticise the conventional account of Wilhelm Weber. In 1890, he observed that magnetisation lagged behind an applied alternating current. He described the characteristic hysteresis curve and speculated that individual molecules act as magnets, resisting changes in magnetising potential. (Note: According to the book Sir Alfred Ewing: A Pioneer in Physics and Engineering (1946) by Professor Bates, the discovery of magnetic hysteresis probably occurred before Ewing. However, Ewing re-discovered it, studied it in detail and coined the word hysteresis). Ewing also researched into the crystalline structure of metals and, in 1903, was the first to propose that fatigue failures originated in microscopic defects or slip bands in materials. In 1895 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Society for his work on Magnetic Induction in Iron and other Metals. Ewing was a close friend of Sir Charles Algernon Parsons and collaborated with him on the development of the steam turbine. During this time, Ewing published