Richter magnitude scale retain the logarithmic character of the original, and are scaled to have roughly comparable numeric values. Prior to the development of the magnitude scale the only measure of an earthquake's strength or "size" was a subjective assessment of the intensity of shaking observed near the epicenter of the earthquake, categorized by various seismic intensity scales such as the Rossi-Forel scale. In 1883 John Milne surmised that the shaking of large earthquakes might generate waves detectable around the globe, and in 1899 E. Von Rehbur Paschvitz observed in Germany seismic waves attributable to an earthquake in Tokyo. In the 1920s Harry
Logarithmic scale the value of a logarithm function. Here, a given logarithmic unit will be denoted using the notation [log "n"], where "n" is a positive real number, and [log ] here denotes the indefinite logarithm function Log(). Examples of logarithmic units include common units of information and entropy, such as the "bit" [log 2] and the "byte" 8[log 2] = [log 256], also the "nat" [log e] and the "ban" [log 10]; units of relative signal strength magnitude such as the "decibel" 0.1[log 10] and "bel" [log 10], "neper" [log e], and other logarithmic-scale units such as the Richter magnitude scale