HENRY CAVENDISH – THE MAN WHO ‘WEIGHED’ THE EARTH By JONATHAN POWERS

The Hon Henry Cavendish (1731-1810) was regarded in his day as ‘the greatest since Newton’, despite publishing less than half of what he knew. Manuscripts discovered after his death (even as recently as 1995) suggest he could have advanced several fields of science by half a century, but he struggled socially because of autism.  

This little book describes his life and achievements and also reconstructs two of his most important unpublished discoveries. The title, however, alludes to an extraordinary experiment conducted over a period of 10 months, the results of which in 1798 he published in a paper of 57 pages. Re-examination of those results shows the accuracy of the value for the fundamental Gravitational Constant implied by his measurements was not equalled for almost a century.

These ‘Enlightenment Mini-Monographs’ have been specially written and published for the benefit of the Derby Museum and Art Gallery, and other regional cultural charities. The author is Professor Emeritus Jonathan Powers DL DUniv, the first Academic Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Derby. These little books all contain some new and original material not to be found elsewhere.

First published by iOpening Books 2012, reprinted 2015

Quandary Books: Second Edition 2017; Third Edition 2018

FOURTH EDITION has been updated to discuss and explain the decision in November 2018 to redefine the SI Units in terms of Fundamental Constants.

Published by Quandary Books, February 2020

Pages: iii, 61. Thirty eight colour and b/w illustrations

ISBN 978-1-913253-17-2