Figure 2 - Giuseppe Mercalli. Another way to measure the strength of an earthquake is to use the Mercalli scale. Invented by Giuseppe Mercalli in 1902, this scale uses the observations of the people who experienced the earthquake to estimate its intensity.The Mercalli scale isn't considered as scientific as the Richter scale, though.he Richter Scale. Figure 1 - Charles Richter studying a seismogram. There are a number of ways to measure the magnitude of an earthquake. The first widely-used method, the Richter scale, was developed by Charles F. Richter in 1934.