News and Articles

The legendary mechanical chart recorder for environmental monitoring dates back to 1911, when John C. Stevens invented the Type A chart recorder. In 1906, J.C. Stevens was the Hydrographer for the USGS out of Portland, Oregon, and was soon promoted to District Engineer.  While with the USGS, he realized that hiring local citizens to observe and record height of water was not accurate or reliable.  He left the USGS and soon set out to design a machine capable of continuous graphic recording of river height.

On the eve of the discontinuation of Stevens chart recorders, we are republishing the following article about the highest profile contribution that our products have made in their 116 year history. This article was originally published in the Stevens Water Monitor newsletter in 2007.

One of the longest lived products in water resource monitoring has been the Stevens’ chart recorder. In fact, the chart recorder, originally invented by Stevens’ founder and namesake J.C. Stevens in 1911, is the product that established Stevens’ leadership in the water monitoring business.

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It has long been known that there is a strong relationship between soil water content and the health and yield of crops. But only in the past few decades has science quantified the specifics of these relationships. This research has expanded to develop a relationship between soil moisture levels and the impact on meteorological and hydrological models and forecasts.

Stevens introduces two new digital sensors with a smart mix of unique features and an attractive price point. The first in a line-up of rugged digital sensors, they offer built-in processing of measured data, eliminating the need to perform complex calculations to process the data for many applications.

On April 20, 2017 we hosted the first in a series of soil physics training webinars. Here is the recording of the session as well as the slide deck we used.

Here are 7 questions and answers about using the Stevens HydraProbe.

Learn how to properly protect environmental monitoring equipment, and in particular the Stevens HydraProbe from damage due to lightning strikes.

The USDA's Introduction to Soil Surveys for Agronomic Use, entitled "From the Surface Down", is an introduction to soil types, horizons, and how they are measured. The intent of this publication is to increase user understanding of soils and acquaint them with the contents of a soil survey and supplemental interpretations that are important to agronomic programs.

The Urban Soil Primer is intended to give planning officials and people who live in urban areas an introduction to soils. It provides information important in planning and managing land resources in a manner that helps to prevent or mitigate problems associated with sedimentation, contamination, runoff, and structural failure. In non-technical language, this publication describes the basic processes and functions common to all soils.

The Stevens HydraProbe can be calibrated to accommodate almost any inorganic soil regardless of clay content or organic matter. While the default calibrations are suitable for most soils, other published calibrations can be used to obtain a higher level of accuracy if specific textural information about the soil is available.