Sunshine duration is a basic item of the surface meteorological observation. A new sunshine recorder, photo-thermal type sunshine recorder is introduced. This sunshine recorder is designed based on the principle of thermocouple; the solar direct radiation can be calculated according to the temperature difference of two thermocouples, and the sunshine duration can be obtained. The principle and structure of the sunshine recorder are introduced, and the energy transmission in wire and performance of the sunshine recorder are discussed. The structure of the sunshine recorder is simple, the performance is good, and the response is quick, along with the variation of the solar radiation intensity without manual manipulation. The automatic operation can be completely achieved, and the measurement of sunshine duration is accurate.