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Environment
Giles Harrison, Professor of Atmospheric Physics, University of Reading

Victorian technology for measuring the weather is still remarkably accurate – new research

Thermometers housed in a 'Stevenson screen' high up in the Alps. Moomin201/Shutterstock

A small, white box with horizontal slats is a familiar sight at weather stations around the UK, and around the world.

This louvred housing for thermometers measuring air temperature was invented in the 1860s by Thomas Stevenson, a lighthouse engineer and father of the author Robert Louis Stevenson. What is now widely known as a Stevenson screen was originally described by its creator as simply a “…box for holding thermometers”.

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