GRAVIMETER

(Lat gravis, heavy, nnd Gr. utrpov, 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 inventedbyM. Guyton, who adopted mis 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 comparison to which the unknown weight la referred. See HyDROMETKR. GRAVITATION, [s. 543]