Three-component seismograph designed by Russian seismologist Boris Golitsyn (Galitzin) and made by Hugo Masing, St Petersburg, Russia, 1910–1912. The two horizontal pendulums were purchased by Arthur Schuster and installed at Eskdalemuir Observatory, Dumfriesshire, Scotland in 1910; he donated the vertical component in 1912. In 1925 the assembly was transferred to Kew Observatory. Kew staff modified the instrument in 1937 so that all three components recorded onto a single drum, rather than separate ones as previously.

Seismographs designed by Boris Golitsyn were widely adopted in Russia and European observatories in the early decades of the twentieth century to detect the faint waves from distant earthquakes. Unlike other fully mechanical seismographs at the time, the seismograph registers earth motion electromagnetically. The boom of each of the three pendulum units carries an induction coil at its end, which is located between the poles of a pair of magnets. Movement of the boom generates induction currents proportional to the displacement velocity. The currents are fed through galvanometers whose mirrors reflect light beams onto a photographic chart.