This sunshine recorder is essentially a pinhole camera that records the image of the moving sun onto a piece of photo-sensitive paper. The form was developed in the 1880s by James B. Jordan in London and used by the British Meteorological Service. The Water Resources Branch of the U.S. Geological Society transferred this example to the Smithsonian in 1908.
Ref: James B. Jordan, “Jordan’s New Pattern Photographic Sunshine Recorder,” Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 14 (1888): 212-217.
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