New Britain Herald Newspaper, October 5, 1926, Page 19

A hydraulic engineer suspendcd from a cable over a western river in order to measure the speed and pressure of its current with his delicate instruments. This information will be incor- porated in the monster map the government is now preparing chines and fast continental trains and speed boats that travel as rap- idly as the cannon balls of the Civil War used to go through the air is no sign that travel over the United States is now devoid of dangerous adventure. At least there is plenty of that sort of thing for the men of the United States Geological Survey. These quiet talking and modest ap- pearing young men are traveling literally over every inch of the United States for the purpose of making a monster map. This map will be the finest in the world and when completed were it dovetailed together it would be the largest map in the world covering more than one acre of space. It is a picture history of every hill, hollow, mountain, stream and other landmark in the country, accurately represented on the scale of one inch to the mile. Making such a map means hardships and privations of almost every sort and kind. These topographical engineers have enough peril and excitement to fill the pages of a score or more “best sellers.” But to them it is all a part of the day's work and they are very loath to admit that their work is at all dan- gerous. During the winter months when trav- eling for map making purposes is im- possible they work at their offices in Washington, at the Department of the Interior, putting in ink the marks that they have made in pencil while covering the inaccessible and little known parts of the nation. During the last year the men of the survey covered some 21,000 square miles in forty-four states. They found ev- tremely valuable deposits of potash in Texas and oil producing formations in Montana. Air route maps of more than 100,000 square miles were made for the Army Air Service, many millions of acres of land were classified as to their mineral or non-mineral character; the flow of streams was measured at 1,700 gauging stations to determine their value for power, irrigation and other purposes; also chemical analyses were made of rocks, minerals and ores. But speaking of danger, there was the mapping of the Grand Canyon, 253 miles of canyon. The examination of twenty- two possible dam sites during the last vear was also a task fraught with dan- ger, but these engineers regarded it as “all in the day’s work” of scientific ex- ploration. The steppes and unexplored interiors of Alaska are covered by men of the survey. Such expeditions include cooks and helpers of various sorts. In that land still largely unknown these men blaze new trails, often camping 300 to 400 miles from the nearest village, store, house or white man’s dwelling. In this great section of America where herds of reindeer and caribou supply the beef and milk—in this land of the mid- night sun—these experts take their tools and mapping tables. They have to guard against wild animals and some- \]I"FT because there are flying ma- times hostile natives. They have to combat Jack Frost, at his worst. While Alaska along the coast will grow many of the crops, corn, that are known in the states, there are other sections of everlasting snows and almost pepetual blizzards. It is no easy matter to operate sur- veying tools when the mercury registers where from ten to fifty degrees be- And there is the matter of reducing all the information to paper, including all the geographical peculiari- ties and data, Not all the map making is done on foot. Machines flying at altitudes of about 8,000 feet, mapping airplanes equipped with specially contrived cam- eras, soar back and forth with military precision, exposing film uniformly as they go, and making extraordinary sky- high pictures of the panorama which appears on the ground far below. But most of the work is done on the ground. Mountain peaks that have never been previously scaled, swamps which heretofore have been avoided as im- passable quagmires, deserts whose heat is so great that the camper can fry his eggs without fire, “bad lands” that are studiously avoided by tourists, trappers and campers—why it’s all in the day’s work for the map making men. Out California way, where the native sons delight in the use of the superla- tive, you will hear about Mount Whit- ney, the highest peak in the Golden State, which towers 14,501 feet above the sea level. “If you want to do some real b- ing, why just tackle ‘Old White,’” the Californians say. And they have reason to point with pride at their mountain, for this mountain is up, and “up” while simple as pie to spell is as hard as Luci- fer to accomplish when considered as Mount Whitney. California is a state of contrasts. There is there a strip of country 100 miles in length which towers to the top of Mount Whitney at its highest point and sinks to the uttermost depths in Death Valley—276 feet below sea level —at its lowest spot. These engineers of the geological survey have their depend- able data all gathered of this region for their mammoth map. In Alaska there is a still higher peak in Mount McKinley, of some 20,000 feet in height. This is but another of the lofty pinnacles which sometimes make the going difficult for Uncle Sam’s map men. It was more than three centuries ago when the first map making activities on this continent were begun. Captain John Smith, the famous English ex- plorer, began a mapping survey of the Chesapeake Bay. For several months he carried on, but then his attention be- came diverted to other lines incident to settling a new country. For a long time after that nothing was done toward making a reliable map. Hunters, traders and explorers told about the new lands all about to the cxcept low zero. Patiently Cha Q rting Every Inch of the Nation’s Surface in Order to Picture All the Smallest Details of Its Mountains, Plains, Lakes and Rivers In the case of a small stream the map makers are often able to gauge its flow by standing on a bridge, as shown in this photograph north, south, east and west, but there was no.government big enough to begin the map- ping of all the unknown ter- ritory. It is only since the Civil War that real survey- ing by the government has been carried on extensively. But novr after almost a half century of effort, less than one-half of continental United States has been sur- veyed and charted. If the work lags in the future as it has in the past because of lack of appropriations it will require at least another cen- tury to complete it. A topographic map is a unique thing inasmuch as it is crossed and’ crisscrossed with contour lines that show cevation. These markings are invaluable to campers, hikers and prospectors and all those who have to cover the country. They not only portray the shapes of all hills, mountains and slopes, but they constitute a com- plete dictionary of altitudes for all named and unnamed points in the United States. Ten seconds’ examination of any point on the great map will enable you to determine the altitude and topo- graphical surroundings of that locality. For mapping activities the country is divided into unit areas or quadrangles, each of which consists of 225 square miles of land and water surface. It costs between $3,000 and $8,000 a quadran- gle to survey and map one of these areas, dependent on the ruggedness of topography and the degree- of settle- ment. When completed these quadrangular maps are sold by Uncle Sam for ten cents apiece. If the same map were prepared and distributed by any private agency the price would have to be at least $5 a copy. To the average mining, industrial or construction engineer, such a map would easily be worth double that figure. Each map is an accurate picture of the section of country where it was made. All the data are collected right Copyright, 1926, Not a new kind of cannon but one of the cameras used by the army fliers in making aerial photographs s SRR R Men of the United States Army Air Service piecing together some of the 2,000 different pictures which were made at an altitude of nearly 15,000 feet and which form a complete map of the Salton Sea. Above—a map making plane flying over the Salton Seca, one of the most hazardous and difficult mapping jobs ever undertaken by the army aviators out in the field where the map is made. The engineers use plane tables and sur- veying levels in their field work, these tools being productive of data which enable them to transfer the crooks and turns, ups and downs of the country to paper. Most of the maps are made on the scale of one mile to one inch which en- ables the topographer to put everything on the map which can be seen on the ground. The ordinary wall map which hangs in offices and libraries is made on the scale of forty milc land surface ‘o or almost e inch of map s The experienced engineer will survey and map about one square mile of land area daily. On the map this large stretch of country will be represented but by only one squarc inch of surface In that every important natural and artificial feature and land mark will be shown by means of finest hairlines and lettering. space physical, the by Johnson Festures, Ine In t} extremely hard lead pencils in drawing the map. During the winter he is in Washington where he carefully inks in the map that he has made. Then the ainstakingly engraved on copper y some of the most expert engravers in the world and then is printed from stone field work the engineer uses three colors in the government lithographic plant Using the ‘nk map made by the field expert the engraver must reproduce this on copper. He cuts the most delicate marks indicating roads, trails, bridges and all. As a rule the engraver can repreduce at the rate of one square—one square inch of cop- per plate surface—of area daily, but often it takes him two or three months to carve into copper the more difficult mountain areas lines and streams, The engravers’ task is even more laborious than the engineers. No other documents in the United States are more carefully or zealously The Duke of Sutherland on a re- cent visit to Washington inspect- ing a new high altitude camera. It weighs only forty-two pounds and will take clear photographs from a height of five miles guarded from beginning to completion than are the maps which the engineers of the geological survey make. From the time that the engineer has spent a half dozen days’ work on his precious sheet he guards it as though it were as valuable as a pot of gold. He sleeps with it under his pillow; whenever he leaves camp he takes the map with him. He never risks fire, theft, or somebody else's carelessness. He alone makes himself responsible for the curiously enscribed sheets of paper which represent months of work, some of which is very arduous and risky. In the Washington offices large fire- proof safes are provided for the safe keeping of these scientific papers, which are roughly estimated to be worth from 000 to $6,000 apiece. As an extra precaution, after each map is inked in, it is photographed by the largest camera in the world, so that there is also another record of the work. Three thousand quadrangles, equiva- lent to 676,000 square miles of land and water surface, have already been sur- veyed and distributed in map form. Al these maps form part of the projected huge map of the United States. When the whole map of the nation is completed those interested will be able to refer to it to obtain complete data about the land at any place and at any time. It will be a scientific achievement surpassing anything that has been done by any other nation. But probably few of the thousands of people consulting it for all kinds of in- formation will have any idea of the painstaking and often perilous labor that went into the making of it nor will the painstaking engineers who did the job even get their names signed to it.