The 1933 Long Beach earthquake gave Ruge a new direction 3 . The disaster had proved the importance of earthquake engineering . Buildings that had been appropriately engineered and reinforced sustained little to no structural damage , while the rest of Long Beach suffered catastrophic ruin . Ruge turned the focus of his research to the development of earthquake-resistant architecture , specifically a method to provide seismic insulation for water towers . In his lab at MIT , Ruge and his research assistant constructed a hydraulic shake table that simulated the effects of the Long Beach earthquake ; on this table they placed a replica of a water tower 4 . It was this research , and the need to measure stress caused by earthquakes that eventually led to Ruge 's invention of the strain gauge
1933 Long Beach earthquake
1933 Long Beach earthquake
Arthur Claude Ruge