The increased accuracy made possible by Kater's pendulum helped make gravimetry a standard part of geodesy.

Kater's pendulums were taken on the great historic geodetic surveys of much of the world that were being done during the 19th century.

In particular, Kater's pendulums were used in the Great Trigonometric Survey of India.

Invariable pendulums: Kater introduced the idea of relative gravity measurements, to supplement the absolute measurements made by a Kater's pendulum.

In 1818 British Captain Henry Kater invented the reversible Kater's pendulum which used this principle, making possible very accurate measurements of gravity.

For about a century, until the 1930s, Kater's pendulum and its various refinements remained the standard method for measuring the strength of the Earth's gravity during geodetic surveys.

Repsold-Bessel pendulum: It was time-consuming and error-prone to repeatedly swing the Kater's pendulum and adjust the weights until the periods were equal.

His most valuable 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 also was first to propose using a reversible pendulum to measure gravity, which was independently invented in 1817 by Henry Kater and became known as the Kater's pendulum.

A Kater's pendulum is a reversible freeswinging pendulum invented by British physicist and army captain Henry Kater in 1817 for use as a gravimeter instrument to measure the local acceleration of gravity.

From measurements using a Kater's pendulum of the force of gravity at the sea level and at the summit of Mount Fuji, Mendenhall deduced a value for the mass of the Earth that agreed closely with that which Francis Baily had obtained in England by another method.