Thomas Stevenson

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Thomas Stevenson

Thomas Stevenson, 1880
Born 1818
Died 1887
Alma mater Edinburgh University
Occupation Lighthouse engineer
Employer Northern Lighthouse Board
Home town Edinburg
Children Robert Louis Stevenson
Parents Robert Stevenson (father)
Relatives David Stevenson (brother)
Alan Stevenson (brother)

Thomas Stevenson PRSE MInstCE FRSSA FSAScot (1818–1887) was a pioneering Scottish lighthouse designer and meteorologist, who designed over thirty lighthouses in and around Scotland, as well as the Stevenson screen used in meteorology. His designs, celebrated as ground breaking, ushered in a new era of lighthouse creation.

He served as president of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts (1859–60), as president of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1884-6), and was a co-founder of the Scottish Meteorological Society.[1]

Background

The youngest son of engineer Robert Stevenson, and brother of the lighthouse engineers Alan and David Stevenson, between 1854 and 1886 he designed many lighthouses, with his brother David, and then with David's son David Alan Stevenson. He married Margaret Balfour and their son was the writer Robert Louis Stevenson, who caused him much disappointment by failing to follow the engineering interests of his family.

Thomas Stevenson was a devout and regular attender at St. Stephen's Church in St Stephen's Place, Silvermills, at the north end of St Vincent Street, Edinburgh.

He was involved in regrettable efforts to rubbish the inventions of John Richardson Wigham.[2]

He examined wind and wave effects, and his analysis [3] is the first quantitative discussion of wave height as a (square root) function of fetch. His paper [4] is one of the first quantitative studies of windspeeds in the planetary boundary layer. Motivated by practical applications, these are fundamental contributions.

Lighthouses designed by Thomas Stevenson

See also

References

  1. ↑ Waterston, Charles D; Macmillan Shearer, A (July 2006). Former Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783-2002: Biographical Index II. Edinburgh: The Royal Society of Edinburgh. ISBN 978-0-902198-84-5. Retrieved 31 December 2010. 
  2. ↑ Tyndall A Story of Lighthouses page 827
  3. ↑ Stevenson, T. The Design and Construction of Harbors: A Treatise on Maritime Engineering, second ed. Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh
  4. ↑ T. Stevenson, Report on Simultaneous Observations of the Force of Wind at Different Heights above the Ground, Journal of the Scottish Meteorological Society, LI-LIV, pp.103-107, 1880

External links

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