VII. On a quartz thread gravity balance

Source abstract

Abstract The problem of replacing dynamical by statical methods of studying the variations of the earth’s gravitational force has long occupied the attention of astronomers and physicists, and a good many attempts have been made to construct an instrument which should enable relative measurements of gravitational force to be carried out with a smaller expenditure of time and trouble than is incidental to the observation of pendulums. The only kind of force which is practicable as a means of opposing gravitation in the construction of such an instrument as is here contemplated, is that derived from the elastic properties of matter.