Thomas Stevenson
(1818-1887), Civil engineer and meteorologistSitter in 1 portrait
Having joined the family engineering firm at seventeen, Thomas Stevenson became a junior partner in 1846. From 1855, he served as engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board, designing around thirty beacons and lighthouses. He also published widely on the effects of nature on artificial constructions. Stevenson's contributions to meteorology include the Stevenson screen for the protection of thermometers, the term 'barometric gradient', and the means of ascertaining vertical gradients for atmospheric pressure, temperature, and humidity. He was President of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts (1859-60) and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1884-6), and co-founder of the Scottish Meterological Society.
Thomas Stevenson; Robert Louis Stevenson; Margaret Isabella Stevenson (née Balfour)
by William Silvester Laroche
albumen carte-de-visite, September 1874
NPG P2026
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