Rensselaer Union, Volume 6, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 July 1874 — History of Maps. [ARTICLE]

History of Maps.

BT RUFCB BLANCHARD. ' Away back In the 42d Olympiad, when Kings ran foot-races with “ newsboys,” —almost 600 years before the Christian era— there dwelt at Miletus, Thales, one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece. It is enough to say of him that he wasa Grecian philosopher. Whether he ever had a sheepskin diploma or not, don’t mat er. History gives him the eredit df introduc ing to the world the familiar theory of the signs of the Zodiac, and of being the first one to calculate eclipses. This information was given to the world shortly after his return from Egypt, that famous old seat of learning in those days. Like other wise men of his age he gloried in imparting instruction to his peers, and particularly to the youth of his country. Anaximander was one of his fortunate pupils, and not only made himself master of the science of his tutor, but carried his researches even beyond that distinguished old sage. Without the assistance of any corner-lot endowment or other auxiliary that we know of, he set np a school, and probably taught pliiloso&To him is „ ascribed the honor of vering the obliquity of the Zodiac. He was a famous traveler, gleaning from, every part of the then known world materials for the development of science; and, the better to disseminate the information derived from his Studies and travels, he published a map of the world as it was then known. To him, therefore, belongs the honor of being the first inventor of maps.. Two hundred years later, Socrates, byway of reproof to Alcibiades for his pride, told him to look on the map for his estates; which is good testimony that the Grecians made use of them.

Later along down the highways of human invention and progress we find the Phoenicians making use of maps as a guide to their commercial pursuits, in which they well-nigh monopolized the trade of India—that inexhaustible source of supply. Sesostris, King of Egypt, also caused his dominions to be mapped; and Ptolemy Claudius, of Alexandria, issued a map of the world, and twenty-six other jmaps, on which to illustrate the sciences of which he was master. Agathodiemon was his draftsman. Says Yarro. the Romans issued maps of their conquered countries; and, in the days of Caesar, Peutenger drew a map of the world, socalled. it was twenty-one feet long, and only one foot wide. Its object appeals to havebeento ffiapthe military- routes to Roman colonies; to which purpose Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia were distorted out of proportion worse than some of the circular railroadmaps of our present day- distort the States through which they- pass, to make their own route appear the most direct. The Arabian scholars made use of the maps of Ptolemy, and perhaps issued others. But a hiatus in map-iiteraturcof several centuries succeeds the decline and fall of the colossal power of Rome, in which little but the germ-cells of art and science were preserved frorti destruction, -These began to show themselves in Venice, Germany, England, France and Spain in the fifteenth century; and maps, with other literature, made their reappearance from these favored places. Of the early specimens of English maps the writer has many in his possession, some of which are venerable with the dust of two centuries. One ct these is an atlas of the world. The engraving is respectable and the coloring delicate; in which respect it is more artistic than some of the maps of the present day, in which an excess of color serves to conceal imperfections in engraving. Thanks' are due to Zebina Eastman, who procured these maps for me duringkis eight years’ Consulship in Bristol These early English maps were engraved on copper—the use of litliographte . tone being then unknown; but the commercial age hastened along, when common people began to discard coarse blouse-shirts for immacculate linen, washed and starched with glossiness. Alois Senfelder was one of these devotees -to cleanly habitudes, and employed a washwoman,. He was also systematic in the method of doing business, and invoiced his list of soiled linen as he gave i* out. On one occasion he hapened to do this on the smooth surface of a polished stone in his possession. The facility with which it took the impression suggested to him the idea that printing could be done on it. He tried his new plan and success was the result. This invention, achieved in 1795, was immediately put in practice. Rome and London introduced the newart in 1807, Paris in 1814, and the United States in 1822. The result has been cheap maps for the million —a desideratum auspicious for the necessities of the new States and growing cities of the West.

The invention of transferring impressions from an engraving to a polished stone was not put in practice till about 1845. Bv this process as many small maps as the sheet will hold can at a single impression. Steam-printing of maps is a very recent invention —scarce jkdecade old." Small maps are rapidlyprinted by this process for circular maps, and any maps wanted in large numbers, if not too large in size; but maps, par excellence, used in offices, and good pocket-maps, are printed on hand-presses at an expense at least .ten times greater than ordinary type-printing. The colors are put on by hand with brushes, and not printed, as some suppose. The drawing of maps is a study which has tested the ingenuity of several generations. How to make a spherical-surface on a superficial one—that is' the problem. On this subject it is proper to say that the map-drawers of to-day are working on the plans our fathers gave us, such as Mayer, Galileo and Mercator. Arrowmith of England and the Coltons of the United States have been the foremost map-men in English literature of the present century, and it is only a just tribute to them to ’ say that their maps will be preserved in the archives of their respective countries as the most faithful representations of their advancement in arts of civilization; albeit the field in the United States is too large for one man, or for a hundred, where towns are springing into existence with a rapidity hitherto unparalleled in the history of the world. To keep pace with all these, arid connect them with lines of railroad as fast as the Comings, and Vanderbilts, and Bcotts, and Thomsons, and a thousand others of like ambition build them is the * work of the restive map-publisher, who never sleeps without one eye open, and works in his harness till he dies. Men may engage in almost any other business and retire from it, but the man who has spent the best of bis Mfe In mapping the most progressive country on earth can hardly be lured from the attractions which lead him along with the current of commerce and the destiny of bis country.