Zhang Heng was born in Nan-yang China in 78AD.  He was a geographer, poet, mathematician and astronomer.  He invented the first seismoscope, a device used to measure earthquakes. It consisted of a cylinder with eight dragon heads around the top.  Directly under each dragon head was a frog.  When an earthquake occurred, a ball would fall out of one of the dragons' mouths' into a frogs' mouth, making a noise.  His machine detected an earthquake 854 kilometers away.  He corrected the calendar to make it coincide with the seasons.  He also invented the celestial globe

Author: Charles DeBoer

References:
http://www-groups.dcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Heng.html
JOC/EFR December 1996
http://gzrb.gzdaily.sti.ac.cn/dzbao/7/b0704
http://jerry.au.tsinghua.edu.cn/poems/html20/han/explain/he010001.txt