Kater

Kater, Henry (1777-1835), an English man of science of German descent, was born at Bristol. He passed two years in a lawyer's office, and in 1794 entered the army. He served some years in India, where he was employed in triangulation and in the measurement of an arc of the meridian. He was placed on half-pay in 1814, and was next year elected F.R.S. He suggested an improved hygrometer; devised an improved pendulum; and in 1821-23 was one of Arago's assistants in making observations for determining the difference of longitude between the meridians of Greenwich and Paris. In 1817 he received the Copley Medal for the invention of a new pendulum; he also invented the floating collimator.