Magnetometer Carl Friedrich Gauss, head of the Geomagnetic Observatory in Göttingen, published a paper on measurement of the Earth's magnetic field. It described a new instrument that consisted of a permanent bar magnet suspended horizontally from a gold fibre. The difference in the oscillations when the bar was magnetised and when it was demagnetised allowed Gauss to calculate an absolute value for the strength of the Earth's magnetic field. The gauss, the CGS unit of magnetic flux density was named in his honour, defined as one maxwell per square centimeter; it equals 1×10 tesla (the SI unit). Francis Ronalds and Charles
Maxwell (unit) to measure. The "maxwell" was affirmed again unanimously as the unit name for magnetic flux at the Plenary Meeting of the International Electrotechnical Commission in July 1930 at Oslo. In 1933, the Electric and Magnetic Magnitudes and Units committee of the International Electrotechnical Commission recommended to adopt the metre-kilogram-second (MKS) system (Giorgi system), and the name weber was proposed for the practical unit of magnetic flux (), subject to approval of various national committees, which was achieved in 1935. The "weber" was thus adopted as a practical unit of magnetic flux by the International Electrotechnical Commission. The "maxwell" is a