Bendandi was born in Faenza to a family of modest wealth . He only attended school for five years , but at the time of the solar eclipse of 30 August 1905 became interested in planetary motion in the solar system . He worked for a watchmaker and an engraver , and also attended a technical drawing course , enabling him to make precision instruments and drawings to explore and demonstrate his theories . After the 1908 Messina earthquake , he began studying the tides , and also devised his own form of seismograph . In October 1914 he predicted in his unpublished notes that an earthquake would take place on 13 January 1915 and , after the Avezzano earthquake did occur on that day , killing 30,000 people , he devoted much of his time to studies of past earthquakes and planetary alignments , setting up his own observatory with seismographs
1908 Messina earthquake
1908 Messina earthquake
Raffaele Bendandi