Apparatus for measuring incident solar heat

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This apparatus for measuring incident solar heat was made around 1870, probably in Edinburgh. It is unsigned. This form of apparatus was designed in by Thomas Stevenson (1818-87).

The apparatus is incomplete: when water in the glass globe expands under the action of sunlight, some of it passes out at the upper bent tube. The water level is kept constant by a supply from the cistern above (lacking).

Thomas Stevenson was one of the founders in 1855 of the Scottish Meteorological Society, but was known mainly as a lighthouse engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board. He made significant contributions to lighthouse illumination.

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• Online ID: 000-100-102-812-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1983.149
• Date: Around 1870
  c. 1870
  
• Material: Apparatus / integrator of sun's heat
  
• Dimensions:
• What: Apparatus / integrator of sun's heat
  
• Subject: 10. METEOROLOGY (Departmental Classification)
  
• Who: Thomas Stevenson, Edinburgh (Designer)
  
• Where: Scotland, Midlothian, Edinburgh
  
• Event:
• Description: Integrator of sun's heat apparatus, designed by Thomas Stevenson, Edinburgh, unsigned, c. 1870
  
• References:
  • Catalogue of the Special Loan Exhibition of Scientific Apparatus, 1876. London: 1876, p 713, item 2899 
• Translations:
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