Kater, Henry (1777-1835)

Autograph letters by Henry Kater (1777-1835) numbered 1-9. Correspondents include François Arago (1786–1853), a French mathematician, physicist, astronomer and politician (nos. 1-2); two letters (nos.3-4) to unknown recepiant, no.3 dated 6 March 1823 includes a press cutting about Kater and no.4 dated 21 April 1827; Dionysius Lardner (1793 - 1859), an Irish scientific writer who popularised science and technology (no.5); Mr Dollend, n.d (no.6)

Reports on the propagation of cholera by Kater to the Hon. Chairman and Members of the Central Board of Health, Boulogne sur Mer, 1831. (nos.7-9). Report dated 24 Nov 1831, includes a copy in French inserted between p.2 and p.3, (no.7); Report dated 1 Dec 1831 has two copies (nos.8,9). Report dated 22 Nov 1831 is missing.

Purchased from: Desgranges, Paris, June 1930 (acc.67390); Stevens, London, March 1931 (acc.56477); Desgranges, Paris, July 1932 (acc.65635); either from Desgranges, Paris, January 1936, or Glendining, London, c.1932 (acc.69292). Transferred from Wellcome Historical Medical Museum, c.1939 (acc.91800). No accession details recorded for no.6.

Henry Kater was born on 16 April 1777 in Bristol. He was an English physicist, geodesist and metrologist of German descent. He intended to study law; but gave up the idea and entered the army, obtaining a commission in the 12th Regiment of Foot, then stationed in India, where he assisted William Lambton in the Great Trigonometric Survey. In 1814 he retired from the army in the rank of captain and devoted his life to scientific research.

The comparison of the merits of the Cassegrainian and Gregorian telescopes was his first major contribution to science which led to his first two contributions to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. In 1811 he invented the azimuth compass consisting of a mirror for reading the scale while simultaneously sighting through a sighting vane on the opposite side of the compass box.

His most substantial work was the invention of Kater's pendulum, enabling the strength of gravity to be determined, first at London and subsequently at various stations throughout the country. He was awarded the Copley Medal in 1817, for his work on the pendulum.

Kater also invented Floating collimator widely used in astronomical observations; he reported about his invention to the Royal Society in January, 1825. For his work on the floating collimator he was in 1831awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of which he became a fellow two years later.

Karter published memoirs in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (1821, 1831) on British standards of length and mass; and in 1832 he published an account of his work in verifying the Russian standards of length. He received the decoration of the order of St. Anne in 1814 in recognition of his services in the preparation of standard measures for the Russian government.

Kater was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1815. He published several papers in the Society’s Philosophical Transactions, up to 1831.

Henry Kater died in London on 26 April 1835.

At Wellcome Collection:

Books:Mechanicsby Henry Kater and Dionysius Lardner (Closed stores EPB / A 30858/A); On the certainty and safety with which the operation for the extraction of a cataract from the human eye may be performed, and on the means by which it is accomplished, With remarks by Captain Kater ... on certain spots discoverable in the human eye, authors: Guthrie, G. J., 1785-1856 and H Kater (Closed stores EPB Tracts T.620)

Photograph of engraving by W. Walker, 1862 ( Closed stores Iconographic).