Henry Kater

After serving in the British Army, including time in India, Henry Kater turned more fully toward scientific work when ill health brought him back to Britain. His military experience fed directly into his later interests in surveying and precision instruments, and he became known for combining careful experiment with useful design.

Kater made important contributions to geodesy and metrology. He invented the reversible pendulum, now often called Kater's pendulum, which allowed a very accurate determination of gravitational acceleration, and he also developed an azimuth compass used in surveying. His work on standards of measurement and on practical scientific instruments made him a respected figure in British science.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1814, received the Copley Medal in 1817, and later became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, which awarded him its Gold Medal in 1831. Though not as widely known today as some of his contemporaries, his careful, exacting approach helped shape the science of measurement in the nineteenth century.