World Maps for all Nations

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 291, 8 September 1928, Page 17

World Maps for all Nations

UNIFORM map of the world, which will be as understand- “ A able by people of all nations as the international code of. / \ signals' is by. all seafarers, is the principal subject for dismission by the International Geographical Congress,” says the Daily Chronicle. . “As every sailor uses the same flags for the same messages, so the world map will have the same colours, type and symbols for the inhabitants of any country. . “Thus a schoolboy taught to road part of the world map in this eountrv will be able to read the official map in any country in the world. The scale of the world map is 1 in. to 1,000,000 in.-an inch to nearly 16 miles—and it has been in the making for 30 years already. “In this country the Ordnance Survey has completed its comparatively simple task, the area involved being small, but countries like Canada “Eventually the entire map will be assembled and reproduced in sections. A sphere 44 yards in diameter will be required to mount It. The interimtional Congress, however, is not yet able to predict a date for the completion of its tusk.” . “Small ns is the scale of the map.” states the Observer, all the sheets litted together would make one great map covering an area of over 5000 square feet.’ , , “The international map of the sky is being made by the obsei atories of eighteen different countries. The maps are made by photography, each'plate covering two degrees each way. Over 1000 plates arc taken by each of the co-operating observatories with short exposures, and as many with long exposures, ami on an average these plates show 500,000 stars, the exact positions of which have to be carefully measured and recorded.

“The complete map will comprise some 20,000 separate photographs, and if placed one above the other would make a pile over 30ft. high. Only very rich people could afford a complete set of all the plates, as it would cost to produce at least £lOOO. “A third international map is being, made for the use of airmen, which will prominently depict landmarks such as rivers, railways, main roads, woods and mountains, each being specially coloured. “This map is on Mercator’s projection, and reckons latitude from the South Pole for ISO degrees north, instead of, as in other maps, 90 degrees N. and S. of*the equator; and, in place of reckoning longitude ISO degrees E. and W. of Greenwich, longitude is carried right round the globe for 360 degrees, with the zero at what is usually ISO degrees from Greenwich. The scale is lin 200,000-just over 3 miles to 1 inch—and some thirty countries are co-operating.’ , r , ■, m “When the Poles were discovered,” comments the Daily Tclcgiaph, “and the sea and the land were Anally charted, it seemed at first that there were no more worlds to conquer, and that the occupation of th geographer was gone. It is only now being discovered that his work has no more than just begun. , “There is as much romantic exploration waiting to be done to-day as ever drew any of Hakluyt’s heroes from their firesides to And a NorthWest Passage In the ecological branch of geography, for instance, we are now discovering that the flora and fauna of a region no longer respond to present conditions, but are the result of an accumulation and interference of effect of a long series of past changes. “This means that a virgin equatorial forset will not reappear in ils present form, if destroyed. Changes of a permanent nature are taking place all over the universe.”