Henry Kater

Henry Kater (* April 16, 1777 in Bristol, † April 26, 1835 in London) was a British physicist and astronomer, known for the development of precision instruments.

Kater 's father Henry (1748-1794) was a native of Germany confectioner, who married an Englishwoman and took it to Bristol to prosperity. Cat only wanted to study law and went with a lawyer in the doctrine, but went to his father's death in 1794 to the army in India, where he helped William Lambton in Madras at the Great Trigonometric Survey of the country. He also devoted himself to mathematical studies and published it. In 1799 he joined the 12th Infantry Regiment ( 12th foot) in Madras and in 1803 lieutenant. For health reasons, he returned in 1808 returned to England and went to the Senior Department of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst and then to the second battalion of his regiment in Jersey. He was promoted to captain, but resigned in 1814 the service at half pay and devoted himself to scientific research. He lived in London. After the death of his mathematically gifted daughter Agnes (1811-1827) and his wife in 1833, he withdrew increasingly.

He dealt with the development of instruments, such as a 1817 eponymous reversible pendulum for gravity measurement ( gravimeters), which became a standard tool for surveyors. In 1825 he invented a collimator (Floating Collimator ) for determining the horizon position in astronomy, and he was also one of the inventors of the prism compass. He published a comparative study of the Cassegrain telescope and Gregory telescope ( with benefits for the Cassegrain telescope ) on compass needles and British lengths and mass standards and Russian length standards (for which he 1814 the Russian St. -Annen - Order received ). He was also a member of the Royal Commission on Standards. In astronomy, he published over Saturn's rings and length determination of lunar eclipses. He wrote a book on mechanics ( in the Cabinet Cyclopedia of Dionysius Lardner ).

In 1815 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Copley Medal he was awarded in 1817 and its treasurer, he spent several years, and in 1826 foreign member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 1831 he received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. In 1820 he held the Bakerian Lecture on the best material and the best form of compass needles.

He was friends with John Herschel.

He was married ( from a wealthy landowner family with property in Mexborough, South Yorkshire ) since 1810 with Mary Frances Reeve and had three children.

His son Edward (1816-1866) gave Henry Kater's death out his essay about the escapement of an astronomical clock. A large part of the estate of Henry Kater came over his son Henry Herman Kater (1813-1881) to Australia ( Sydney Observatory and University of Sydney ).