Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 30.djvu/247

 investigated the decrease of gravity from the equator to the poles, and the extraordinary sensitiveness of his pendulum suggested to him the possibility of discovering differences in the subjacent strata of a region by noting these minute variations in the force of gravity (ib. 1819). He delivered the Bakerian lecture for 1820 on the best kind of steel for compass-needles (ib. pp. 104–30), having arrived at very curious and unexpected results. He completed the investigations of Sir George Augustus William Schuckburgh Evelyn [q. v.] into the weights of a standard cube, cylinder, and sphere, by ascertaining their dimensions, in view of the approaching report of the commissioners of weights and measures. The apparatus employed by him for the purpose, and the results obtained, were reported by him very fully (ib. 1821, 1825, 1826). Perhaps the most important of Kater's contributions to science was the invention of the floating collimator, for determining the line of collimation of a telescope attached to an astronomical circle in any position of the instrument (ib. 1825, 1828). Other papers by him, many on astronomical subjects, will be found in different volumes of ‘Philosophical Transactions’ (1819, 1821, 1823, 1828, 1831, 1833), in the ‘Quarterly Journal of Science’ (1821 vol. xi., 1822 vol. xii.), in ‘Astronomische Nachrichten’ (1826, vol. iv. cols. 113–16), in ‘Astronomical Society's Memoirs’ (1831, iv. 383–9), and ‘Astronomical Society's Monthly’ (1831–3, ii. 178–80). In 1832 Kater published ‘An Account of the Standards prepared for the Russian Government,’ London, 4to; a copy of the work is in the library of the Royal Society. He helped to frame the admiralty instructions for the care of instruments in arctic expeditions; contributed some observations on specks in the eyes to Guthrie's work on ‘Cataract’ [see ], and wrote the chapter on balances and pendulums in the volume ‘Mechanics’ of Lardner's ‘Cabinet Cyclopædia,’ London, 1830.

[The fullest biographical notices of Kater are in Knight's English Cyclopædia, Biography, vol. iii., and Gent. Mag. new ser. iv. 324. A list of his contributions to scientific periodicals is in Cat. Scient. Papers. A brief summary of the more important papers is given in Abstracts Royal Soc. London, 1830–7, pp. 350–84.]  KATHARINE or KATHERINE. [See .] KATTERFELTO, GUSTAVUS (d. 1799), conjurer and empiric, a native of Prussia, seems to have attracted no notice until he made his appearance about 1782 in London, where he soon gained a widespread notoriety, partly by means of advertisements headed ‘Wonders! Wonders! Wonders!’ which he inserted in the newspapers. He is described as being a compound of conjurer and quack doctor. In both these capacities he worked upon the credulity of the Londoners during the epidemic of influenza in 1782. Among other ‘philosophical apparatus’ he employed the services of some extraordinary black cats, with which he astonished the ignorant. He also professed to have discovered the secret of perpetual motion, and in 1784 was visited by the royal family, the members of which declared that his performance exceeded their most sanguine expectations (Morning Post, 3 June 1784). During his stay in London, where he generally exhibited in Spring Gardens, Katterfelto was frequently alluded to in the public prints, and there is a large collection of extracts relating to his ‘solar-microscopic’ and other performances in Lysons's ‘Collectanea’ (i. 190 seq.), together with an amusing cartoon in which he is represented as trudging home laden with the apparatus of quackery, but in possession of a large bag of English guineas. Peter Pindar mentions him more than once. Cowper, in the ‘Task’ (bk. iv. l. 86), speaks of   Katterfelto, with his hair on end At his own wonders, wondering for his bread. Subsequently he made a tour in the provinces, with less success. At Shrewsbury he was committed to prison as a vagrant and an impostor. He frequently visited Whitby, where he was well received. He had a kind of travelling museum of natural and other curiosities, which was especially rich in fossils, agates, and similar productions of the Yorkshire coast. Microscopic demonstrations formed part of his entertainment. One of his most popular tricks at Whitby was to raise his daughter to the ceiling by the attractive influence—as the operator affirmed—of a huge magnet, after she had put on a massive steel helmet, with leathern straps passed under the armpits. Katterfelto died at Bedale, Yorkshire, on 25 Nov. 1799. His widow became the wife of John Carter, a publican of Whitby, who was mainly instrumental in reviving the manufacture of jet about 1800.

[Chambers's Book of Days, i. 510; Chambers's Pocket Miscellany, xix. 74; Thompson Cooper in Whitby Times, 11 Dec. 1863; Mirror, xvii. 69.]  KAUFFMANN, ANGELICA (1741–1807), historical and portrait painter, born at Coire, the capital of the Grisons, 30 Oct. 1741, and baptised by the names of Maria Anna