GRAVIMETER

(Lat. gravis, heavy, an^Gr.fx.iT^cv, measure.) An instrument for ascertaining the specific gravities of bodies, whether liquid or solid. The particular instrument to which the term is usually appropriated was invented by M. Guyton; who adopted this name in preference to areometer or hydrometer, because these latter terms imply that the liquid is the thing weighed; whereas, when solids are weighed, the liquid is only the term of coin paris on to which the unknown weight is referred. See Hydrometer. GRAVITATION, [s. 539]