Evening Star Newspaper, March 17, 1935, Page 53

Stage — Screen Music — Radio Part 4—10 Pages WASHINGTON, FEATURES The Sunday Stard 10 (0 SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 17, 1935. Books—Art Children’s Notes Page CAPITAL IS GREAT MAP-MAKING CENTER OF WORLD City is Also Storchouse for the Largest Number of Completed d Maps—How the Delicate and Important Work is Carried . § Out in Various Govern —— By Don Bloch. ENERALLY unknown is the fact that Washington is the greatest map-making center in the world and the store- house of the largest number ©of completed ones. In its more than 50 collections, containing about 20,000,000 on file— 3.500,000 all different—one may find literally everything from airplane maps to whale charts. The air above the earth with its “bumps” and cur- rents; cadastral charts which show every contour of the soil, its chemis- try, geology and man-made objects on the surface: the mountains and val- leys of the continents under the seas —in some way. every square inch of the known world may be seen on maps drawn, published, compiled in Washington or purchased abroad, and now in public and private collections. When Hipparchus had scratched the last lines on his crude map of the world as it was known in 200 B. C., he could set aside his stylus and the mud tablet was set in the oven, and feel reasonably sure that his work would stand for at least another score of years. In that day the face of the world altered slowly. Catching up with our modern changing world to map it is no longer the leisurely task of a cloistered draughtsman. It is rather the hur- ried, full-time toil of highly skilled artists, and is crammed with ele- ments of adventure, news-reporting and accurate, laborious research. HILE a recent map of the world was being prepared by the Na- tional Geographic Society, one of Washington's forty-odd cartographic mgencies, it was necessary to stop the presses three times to make changes that would record last-minute shifts in important world names and sover- eignties. The redrawings were re- quired when Iraq emerged from the status of a British mandated area to & full-fledged independent state; when the name “Nizhni Novgorod.” borne by a Russian city for centuries, be- came “Maxim Gorky,” and when the great heart of the Arabian peninsula was given the newest title of any major state, “Kingdom of Saudi Arabja.” Of the 4,800 names on that map, it had been necessary to change 1,226 of them and add 500 entirely hew ones, both changes and addi- tions having occurred in the last decade. The map-making activities of the Geographical Society, however, are mainly confined to two of the phases of the Washington cartographical picture. First, they are purchasers of maps; second, they are copyers, com- pllers and publishers. They are not an original map-making organization. ‘They do not send surveyors and draughtsmen into the field to repro- duce a given terrain. .Thelr basic collection of maps in-J The military intelligence nmnr J ] cludes about 2,500 of the best-known | of all the continents and subdivisions | of each, the Caribbean Sea, Oceanica, | the Arctic regions, etc.; more than 20 | modern atlases—one of these, the| finest atlas in existence, that put out | by the Italian tourist bureau, and about 1,500 standard topographic | sheets of this country and Canada. | These are for reference use by the society's editorial staff. Year in and out, the society, under the direction of Albert H. Bumstead, chief cartographer, puts out an aver- age of two to four maps per month. Using known maps and surveys for a base, this map division takes hand ,atlases, guide books, ancient and mod- ern books of travel and, from these, | together with data supplied by its | own explorers’ notebooks, assembles its illustrative maps. This same type of compilation is | done by a score of the other carto- | graphic agencies in the city. The | Post Office’s division of topography, | | for example, is mapping its post | routes. The Agriculture Depart- ment’s Weather Bureau is plotting its daily climatic curves. The Com- merce Department’s International Boundary Commission and its di- | vision of air commerce; the War De- | partment’s Bureau of Insular Af- | fairs, the Interior Department’s Bu- reau of Indian Affairs, the Navy Department’s hydrographic office and | the State Department’s geographical section, among others. To describe in detail the collections of these governmental compiling agencies would far exceed the limits of this article. Two must suffice. The Bureau of Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture has | a collection which consists of about 1,500 maps showing the ranges, breed- ing grounds, migration routes and Winter ranges in North America of | birds and the range of wild animals; Talso, maps of life zones. They are | platted on large base maps and filed in portfolios arranged by natural groups: e. g., deer and elk, mountain sheep, shore birds, grouse, etc. 'HE collection of the Census Bu- reau, geographic division of the Department of Commerce, includes | about 16,000 city and county maps showing political subdivisions—town- | ships, towns, election districts, magis- terial districts, civil districts, militia districts, election precincts, justices’ precincts, beats, police jury wards, etc., from 1900 to 1930. These maps |are used to assist in making plans | for collection of statistics on popula- tion, agriculture and other subjects covered by the census. The printed reports contain maps of the United | States and respective States showing. areas drained and irrigated. They |are filed and indexed alphabetically by States and counties and are avail- l able for consultation by the public. of the War Department’s collection of more than 1,000,000 maps of all available foreign and domestic maps showing political, geological and eth- nological features for Army studies, is one of the most interesting in this group which both purchases and com- piles its maps. About 20 more agencies come un- der the head of original map-makers. | The engineers of the War Depart ment, the Agriculture Depart- ment’s Forest Service, Interior De- partment’s general land office and National Park Service, the War De- partment's lake survey, Mississippi River Commission, the Navy's Yards and Docks Bureau and the Agricul- ture Department’s newest division to | go in for map-making, the Soil Erosion Bureau, are among members of this group. The oldest and largest govern- mental agencies for making maps come under this heading: Re- spectively, Geological Survey, now more than 56 years at the business of plotting | various phases of the earth’s surface. The primary function of the Coast and Geodetic Survey is the issuance of new and revised editions of nautical charts, based on data gathered by its men in the “field,” printed in its shops, for the coasts of the United States and its possessions. It is the Federal bureau responsible for all fundamental data needed for this purpose, and its materials so gathered are utilized by many other map-making agencies of the Govern- ment, HE hydrographic surveys by s 12 ships are but one of the pre- liminaries. The same is true with respect to basic tide and cur-ent sur- veys, magnetic observations and re- searches, and the geodetic surveys (triangulation and leveling) for the fundamental control, or framework, of all mapping and charting. Other functions include earthquake studies, in which the Government now is tak- ing an active part; astronomical ob- servations, gravity measurements and ob;ervaficn& for the variation of lati- tude. Another important and gigantic task handled by the Coast and Geodetic survey for the Bureau of Air Com- merce is the preparation of a series of airway maps to cover the whole of the United Statec. Once a map is issued, revised editions follow rapidly, detailing the accumulation of changes of importance to air pilots. It is in- teresting to note that the frame- work, or projection, chosen by the survey upon which to base its aero- nautical information for' this work, was the Lambert “conic projection,” devised in 1772. So far as is known, this projection had not been used for navigation prior to its adoption as the basic framework for the Com- merce Department’s air- mp: Geo- the Coast and Geodetic | Survey, established in 1807, and the assembled and | Top, left: in the work was designed by Alber! tate over the plate. Lower, center: George C. Wathen correcting lithographing printing stone at Geological Survey. War. Lower, right: graphically, the United States is so situated as to afford more advan- tages, with fewer limitations, in the | use of this projection than in the use of any other. By its use, it has been found, all problems of naviga- factorily. The Geological Survey of the De- partment of Interior is actually the in the world. Beginning, in 1879, to construct accurate topographic and unexplored regions of the United States, they have steadily pro- gressed with this part of their work until topographic maps of 46 per cent of the country now are published, be sides maps for large areas in Alaska and Hawaii. map, is done by this Government bu: reau. Part of the Survey’s mapping comes under a plan for an international map—a map of the world on the scale of 1 inch equals 1,000,000 square miles —the American portion of which shall be uniform in scale and symbols with those representing areas on the other continents. Four sheets of the con- templated forty-five in this project have been completed. ‘The Survey keeps in stocks for sale more than 6,000,000 copies of 4,000 different maps. These topographic maps show with great accuracy all the natural features of the country and man-built structures. Perhaps their most notable feature is the contour lines, which are graphic representa- Lions of the land surfaces—mountains. slopes, valleys, depressions—every in- equality which the eye observes on the ground Each map is, among other things. a real dictionary of alti- tudes of the area it covers. The price of one of these maps is 10 cents; the fleld survey of the area represented costs the Survey between $8,00 and $18,000 on an average. T}m application of aerial photog- raphy to topographic mapping wmomwuh;:m?wum men t H. Bumstead, chief cartographer. t Burcaus and Div Isions. Section of the Army War College, showing cartographers compiling data for printing new and cor- rection of old maps, more than three million of which are kept in the archives. Center: Mrs. Helen Morgan and Miss Bella Dodek, expert operators of National Geographic Society’s map-lettering unit Top. at right: using map-reproducing apparatus, which employs the newest mercury vapor lamps. Lower, left: Meclntire of the Geological Survey lifting 2 photo lithoplate from graining machine. The camera used M. D. Wesleysmith David E. Marbles and sand ro- Coast and Geodetic Survey mapmaking at Epping, Me., during the Civil Survey in 1919, and has been con- stantly increasing since then. Both multiple lens and single lens cameras are used, the type of photographs take, and "accessibility of the area to be | location of control points available for their adjustment. A line map, showing all plano- woodlands areas is compiled in the office on the scale of the photographs and printed in light blue on plane- table sheets. The topographic survey is then completed on this line map | base—a marriage, so to speak, of earth nd air—a ‘“mosaic” map, so-called, | and the type of map envisioned for | all travelers of the future. By this by ground survey methods alone. In | the four-year period from 1926-29, | areas aggregating about 35,000 square | miles in the United States proper and 22,400 square miles in Alaska were thus photographed. When topographic field work on a project is finished, a completely penciled topographic map is sent to the main office of the Survey, where it is inked in the colors of a pub- lished map. Contours are inked in burnt sienna, water features and swamp symbols in Prussian blue and cultural features and lettering in black. After a preliminary photo- lithographic edition is made and the map is checked, inspected and edited, it is then sent to the engraving divi- ion. g Here the symbols shown by each of the three colors are engraved oh a separate copper plate. When the plates are completed, separate and combined proofs are printed and carefully compared with the edited original. Errors or omissions are cor- rected. Transfers are then made from the lates to lithographic stones,.of which rms division has more than 1,000, of all sizes, The map is printed from e additional overprint, of trans- An Washington Star Photos. | parent green is made to indicate wooded areas, and an overprint of {red to indicate surfaced roads and other main-traveled highways. The the different colors. A large four- color press has been installed, by | which the colors are printed in im- greatest map-making establishment | metric details of drainage, culture and | mediate succession. This shop alone, among map-mak- ing agencies in the Capital, has equip- geologic maps of both the known and | and then reduced to the field scale | ment capablé of engraving 450 plates |and printing 2,000,000 three-colored | topographic maps a year. Among those collections of the | third phase are the ones possessed, for example, by the Government Printing | Office, the Pan-American Union | (whose vast topographic relief map Extensive areas have also been cov- | method of mapping, groundwork is|of Latin America in its lobby is the | ered by geologic maps, and all the | reduced to a minimum. and a more | largest map of any sort in Washing. work, from the beginning of the field | detailed map is produced for approxi- | ton), the Navy's Bureau of Public | survey to the printing of the finished | mately the same cost as a map made | Buildings and Parks and the Bureau of Railway Economics. { i I~ THE Library of Congress collec- | * tion, however, which has accumu- lated to the care of Col. Lawrence | Martin, are the real rarities and car- tographic oddities of the city. Here may be found the giant map of the United States and the Philip- pines upon which, hung in the White House for the duration of the con- flict, President McKinley followed the progress of the Spanish-American War. Here are a series of 32 line maps, in colors, showing Lee's retreat and Grant’s pursuit from Petersburg to Appomatox Court House, an almost hour-by-hour change of troops and shift of salients to April 2, 1865. These maps are the fifth of a group, | showing the military strategies in im- portant battles of the Civil War, which have been drawn by this unique car- | tographer. He is R. E. L. Russell of Baltimore.. The remarkable thing about these maps is that Russell is | a night telegraph operator, with no training whatsover either in draughts- manship, art or cartography, who draws these maps during the night hours between messages for want of somehting 1o do w.kup him awake. And they are not crude, slipshod sketches; they are based upon a vast yamount of intensive research, accurate and quite “professional,” according to | Martin. Here are the maps made by one of | the Nation's first, and certainly best- 'known, surveyor = cartographers, | George Washington. | In the Library of Congress, also, is | the famous map drawn by the Vir- |ginia physician, John Mitchell, as a “potboiler” pastime, in 1755. It was So perfect in certain respects that | it has been used ever since in more legal and geographical controversies than any other map of the United | States ever drawn. It has been called |the “longest-lived” map ever drawn | and has been used by English law lords within the last three years to settle boundary disputes and by the Supreme Court in many instances to settle similar questions of boundary depending upon the character | map passes through the press once for | between our own States. each color, and great care is required | tion can be solved quickly and satis- | mapped, and upon the number and | to maintain proper register between see a horse map, dog map. rum map, And here on the walls one may tobacco map and a complete map of fairyland on which is shown the pre- | cise location of every mythological country and character in literature | and the exact locale of all the world’s | fairy tales! JLKEUT. E. B. HUNT of the United | | States Corps of Engineers, in the | year 1853, brought before the Ameri- can Association for the Promotion | of Science a project for establishing |a geographical collection as a dis- | tinct and independent department of he Government. He wished it to embrace “all ma- terials illustrating the early and re- | cent geography of the United States, both its seacoast and interior, includ- ing traced copies of all valuable maps | and charts in manuscript and not published; also, the materials for illustrating the past and present geography of each State, county, township and city,” and in the same | manner, “all the maps and charts | on the remainder of America. Fur- | ther, the admiralty or seacoast charts of all the European and other | foreign states, and the detailed | topographical surveys of their in- teriors—at least the most approved maps published from private sources, whether as atlases, nautical charts or naval maps, including publica- tions on physical geography, guide | | books, railroad maps and city hand books.” Further, Mr. Hunt wished to com- | bine with the above a complete series of the narratives of voyages of dis- | covery and exploration, besides geo- graphical, geodetical and nautical manuals and treatises, with all the | requisite bibliographical aids to the amplest geographical investigation. Mr. Hunt’s primary object in ad- vocating the formation of this col- lection was to provide for the wants | of Congress. At the same time he wished that It rouw furnish fa- cilities to the State Department, the Bureau of Engineers and Topograph= ical Engineers, the Coast Survey, the National Observatory and the several naval bureaus. “The value of such a collection,” said Mr. Hunt, “in its relation to leg- islation, in its illustration of river and harbor questions, in its pros- pective use for illustrating history, and generally as a means of exalting and correcting our geographical knowledge, gives it most truly the character of a national enterprise.” The strangest item of all, picked up on this cartographical tour of the Capital. was one, revealed in an obscure French journal, published in Paris more than 100 years ago. It appears to be the only place, outside of the hearings of a congressional committee, that the idea was ever even mentioned. Translated, it yields this odd information In 1824, one Ira Hall of Baltimore and Hagerstown presented a bill to Congress asking for $10,000 and 10 acres on “the Mall” for the construc- tion of a “geographical garden” in Washington. He described it as & spot “in which all parts of the known world will be exactly duplicated. “The bottom of the oceans, seas, gulfs, bays and lakes.” he continues, “will be represented in depth, and the continents, peninsulas, isthmuses, mountains, islands, etc., in relief, and in proportion with their respective elevations on the globe. The bottom of the oceans and other seas will be covered with sand, the land ornae mented with green, and the moun- tains may be built of the same kind of stone as they are in nature. “Such a topographical representa- tion of the globe would have many advantages over all other kinds of maps,” declared Hall. “It would be on a scale large enough to show the cities in their exact proportions, and their relative positions would be more clearly discerned. On this map the United States would be 160 feet in width.” Guide for Readers PART 4. Page. John Clagett Proctor’s Article on old Wash- ington “Those Were the Happy 1bl:;)ays," by Dick Mans- “Eyes for vhe Blind”.. Books and Art . News of the Theaters. Musical Affairs........... Radio News and Programs, Trayel ..... Children’s Pig [ v ©RIBPUB LN 5 iy ey e g g g ! ]