the Luba-Lunda group of Bantus. It is a highly mineralized region, being specially rich in copper ore. Gold, iron and tin are also mined. Katanga is bounded S. and S.E. by Northern Rhodesia, and British capital is largely interested in the development of its resources, the administration of the territory being entrusted to a committee on which British members have seats. Direct railway communication with Cape Town and Beira was established in 1909. There is also a rail and river service via the Congo to the west coast. (See Congo Free State.)
KATER, HENRY (1777–1835), English physicist of German
descent, was born at Bristol on the 16th of April 1777. At first
he purposed to study law; but this he abandoned on his father’s
death in 1794, and entered the army, obtaining a commission
in the 12th regiment of foot, then stationed in India, where he
rendered valuable assistance in the great trigonometrical survey.
Failing health obliged him to return to England; and in 1808,
being then a lieutenant, he entered on a distinguished student
career in the senior department of the Royal Military College at
Sandhurst. Shortly after he was promoted to the rank of
captain. In 1814 he retired on half-pay, and devoted the
remainder of his life to scientific research. He died at London
on the 26th of April 1835.
His first important contribution to scientific knowledge was the comparison of the merits of the Cassegrainian and Gregorian telescopes, from which (Phil. Trans., 1813 and 1814) he deduced that the illuminating power of the former exceeded that of the latter in the proportion of 5 : 2. This inferiority of the Gregorian he explained as being probably due to the mutual interference of the rays as they crossed at the principal focus before reflection at the second mirror. His most valuable work was the determination of the length of the second’s pendulum, first at London and subsequently at various stations throughout the country (Phil. Trans., 1818, 1819). In these researches he skilfully took advantage of the well-known property of reciprocity between the centres of suspension and oscillation of an oscillating body, so as to determine experimentally the precise position of the centre of oscillation; the distance between these centres was then the length of the ideal simple pendulum having the same time of oscillation. As the inventor of the floating collimator, Kater rendered a great service to practical astronomy (Phil. Trans., 1825, 1828). He also published memoirs (Phil. Trans., 1821, 1831) on British standards of length and mass; and in 1832 he published an account of his labours in verifying the Russian standards of length. For his services to Russia in this respect he received in 1814 the decoration of the order of St. Anne; and the same year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.
His attention was also turned to the subject of compass needles, his Bakerian lecture “On the Best Kind of Steel and Form for a Compass Needle” (Phil. Trans., 1821) containing the results of many experiments. The treatise on “Mechanics” in Lardner’s Cyclopaedia was partly written by him; and his interest in more purely astronomical questions was evidenced by two communications to the Astronomical Society’s Memoirs for 1831–1833—the one on an observation of Saturn’s outer ring, the other on a method of determining longitude by means of lunar eclipses.
KATHA, a district in the northern division of Upper Burma,
with an area of 6994 sq. m., 3730 of which consists of the former
separate state of Wuntho. It is bounded N. by the Upper
Chindwin, Bhamo and Myitkyina districts, E. by the Kaukkwe
River as far as the Irrawaddy, thence east of the Irrawaddy by
the Shan State of Möng Mit (Momeik), and by the Shweli River,
S. by the Ruby Mines district and Shwebo, and W. by the Upper
Chindwin district. Three ranges of hills run through the district,
known as the Minwun, Gangaw and Mangin ranges. They
separate the three main rivers—the Irrawaddy, the Mèza and the
Mu. The Minwun range runs from north to south, and forms
for a considerable part of its length the dividing line between the
Katha district proper and what formerly was the Wuntho state.
Its average altitude is between 1500 and 2000 ft. The Gangaw
range runs from the north of the district for a considerable
portion of its length close to and down the right bank of the
Irrawaddy as far as Tigyaing, where the Myatheindan pagoda
gives its name to the last point. Its highest point is 4400 ft.,
but the average is between 1500 and 2000 ft. The Katha branch
of the railway crosses it at Petsut, a village 12 miles west of
Katha town. The Mangin range runs through Wuntho (highest
peak, Maingthôn, 5450 ft.).
Gold, copper, iron and lead are found in considerable quantities in the district. The Kyaukpazat gold-mines, worked by an English company, gave good returns, but the quartz reef proved to be a mere pocket and is now worked out. The iron, copper and lead are not now worked. Jade and soapstone also exist, and salt is produced from brine wells. There are three forest reserves in Katha, with a total area of 1119 sq. m. The population in 1901 was 176,223, an increase of 32% in the decade. The number of Shans is about half that of Burmese, and of Kadus half that of Shans. The Shans are mostly in the Wuntho sub-division. Rice is the chief crop in the plains, tea, cotton, sesamum and hill rice in the hills. The valley of the Mèza, which is very malarious, was used as a convict settlement under Burmese rule. The district was first occupied by British troops in 1886, but it was not finally quieted till 1890, when the Wuntho sawbwa was deposed and his state incorporated in Katha district.
Katha is the headquarters of the district. The principal means of communication are the Irrawaddy Flotilla steamers, which run between Mandalay and Bhamo, and the railway which communicates with Sagaing to the south and Myitkyina to the north. A ferry-steamer plies between Katha and Bhamo.
KATHIAWAR, or Kattywar, a peninsula of India, within
the Gujarat division of Bombay, giving its name to a political
agency. Total area, about 23,400 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 2,645,805.
These figures include a portion of the British district of Ahmedabad,
a portion of the state of Baroda, and the small Portuguese
settlement of Diu. The peninsula is bounded N. by the Runn
of Cutch, E. by Ahmedabad district and the Gulf of Cambay, and
S. and W. by the Arabian Sea. The extreme length is 220 m.;
the greatest breadth about 165 m. Generally speaking, the
surface is undulating, with low ranges running in various directions.
With the exception of the Tangha and Mandav hills,
in the west of Jhalawar, and some unimportant hills in Hallar,
the northern portion of the country is flat; but in the south, from
near Gogo, the Gir range runs nearly parallel with the coast, and
at a distance of about 20 m. from it, along the north of Babriawar
and Sorath, to the neighbourhood of Girnar. Opposite this latter
mountain is the solitary Osam hill, and then still farther west
is the Barada group, between Hallar and Barada, running about
20 m. north and south from Gumli to Ranawao. The Girnar
group of mountains is an important granitic mass, the highest
peak of which rises to 3500 ft. The principal river is the Bhadar,
which rises in the Mandav hills, and flowing S.W. falls into the
sea at Navi-Bandar; it is everywhere marked by highly cultivated
lands adjoining its course of about 115 m. Other rivers are
the Aji, Machhu and Satrunji—the last remarkable for romantic
scenery. Four of the old races, the Jaitwas, Churasamas,
Solunkis and Walas still exist as proprietors of the soil who
exercised sovereignty in the country prior to the immigration
of the Jhalas, Jadejas, Purmars, Kathis, Gohels, Jats, Mahommedans
and Mahrattas, between whom the country is now chiefly
portioned out. Kathiawar has many notable antiquities, comprising
a rock inscription of Asoka, Buddhist caves, and fine Jain
temples on the sacred hill of Girnar and at Palitana.
The political agency of Kathiawar has an area of 20,882 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 2,329,196, showing a decrease of 15% in the decade due to the results of famine. The estimated gross revenue of the several states is £1,278,000; total tribute (payable to the British, the gaekwar of Baroda and the nawab of Junagarh), £70,000. There are altogether 193 states of varying size and importance, of which 14 exercise independent jurisdiction, while the rest are more or less under British administration. The eight states of the first class are Junagaw, Nawanagar, Bhaunagar, Porbandar, Dhrangadra, Morvi, Gondal and Jafarabad. The headquarters of the political agent are at Rajkot, in the centre of the peninsula, where also is the Rajkumar college, for the education of the sons of the chiefs. There is a similar school for girasias, or chiefs of lower rank, at Gondal. An
