An early special-purpose seismometer consisted of a large, stationary pendulum, with a stylus on the bottom. As the earth started to move, the heavy mass of the pendulum had the inertia to stay still within the frame. The result is that the stylus scratched a pattern corresponding with the Earth's movement. This type of strong-motion seismometer recorded upon a smoked glass (glass with carbon soot). While not sensitive enough to detect distant earthquakes, this instrument could indicate the direction of the pressure waves and thus help find the epicenter of a local quake. Such instruments were useful in the analysis of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Further analysis was performed in the 1980s, using these early recordings, enabling a more precise determination of the initial fault break location in Marin county and its subsequent progression, mostly to the south.