A FIFTY-YEARS RETROSPECT

Abstract

In 1911 Lord Carrington, then President of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, offered me the appointment of Director-General of the Ordnance Survey of the (then) United Kingdom, and I need not say that I accepted the appointment. I took over from my predecessor, Colonel S. C. N. Grant, on the 22nd August. The Ordnance Survey was a single department charged with the mapping, on a great variety of scales, of England and Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Officers and men were freely interchangeable between the different countries.     

Editorial

Abstract

This paper describes the conservation of the first edition of the six-inches-to-one-mile Ordnance Survey maps of Ireland. It outlines the general problem of the acidity of paper on which nineteenth-century Ordnance Survey maps are printed and the peculiar problems of conserving a hand-coloured presentation set. Each stage in the process is described up to the final encapsulation of the maps in Melinex polyester film.     

A FIFTY-YEARS RETROSPECT

Abstract

The Ordnance Survey after the War.—I might class the four years after the War, during which I remained at the head of the Ordnance Survey, as interesting but troublesome. As is well known, an entirely unreasonable impression was spread about that, now that the War was over, there would be a period of great prosperity, and that we should all live like fighting cocks. Well, things did not work out like that. There was a Select Committee on National Expenditure (1918), and this Committee recommended a lengthening of the period of revision of the large-scale maps of the United Kingdom and a consequent, ultimate, reduction of establishment by 500 men. The Treasury later on insisted on a reduction by 600, including Ireland.     

AZIMUTH COMPUTATION IN THE OLD PRINCIPAL TRIANGULATION OF THE BRITISH ISLES

Abstract

The old Principal Triangulation of Great Britain and Ireland is a classic, both in execution and publication. The names of many of those who planned it, made it possible, carried it out or computed it have become legendary in the Ordnance Survey. Such are Roy, Dalby, Ramsden, Mudge, Colby, Drummond, Steele, O'Farrell and, greatest of them all, Clarke.     

THE WORK OF THE ORDNANCE SURVEY OF THE IRISH FREE STATE

Abstract

Up to 31st March 1922, the work in Ireland with regard to the revision and supply of Ordnance Survey Maps was governed by similar rules to those existing at the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain. No changes were made in the Irish Free State until the revision of Co. Waterford was completed on the 25-inch scale in 1923. It was then decided to depart from the usual procedure of taking up the work of the revision of Counties according to a cycle of years, and to revise those particular portions of the country in which extensive alterations had been carried out by reason of the division of properties by the Congested Districts Board and the Irish Land Commission. Accordingly, those portions of Counties Galway, Mayo and Roscommon which had undergone the greatest development were taken up for revision. In all eighty-nine sheets were specially revised and completed by 1928.     

IMPROVEMENTS IN REPRODUCTION METHODS OF THE ORDNANCE SURVEY

Abstract

The following six notes describe some of the ways in which reproduction methods of the Ordnance Survey have recently been improved. They have been written by different officersof the Ordnance Survey and Ministry of Supply whose initials appear at the end of each note.     

The Ordnance Survey 1:50 000 Map

Abstract

The One Inch to One Mile Map, first published by the Ordnance Survey 175 years ago has been superseded by the new metric 1:50 000 series. This account describes the cartographic production stages of the new series and is a sequel to the paper by J. G. Price—Cartographic Journal, June 1975.     

Maps for the Reluctant

Abstract

This paper describes the design and development of two trial 1:100 000 scale Ordnance Survey maps targeted specifically at the inexperienced and reluctant map users in the touring and holiday market. These are two maps which depart from the very high map specification designs normally offered by Ordnance Survey. The use of extensive consumer market research and the objective analysis of existing touring type maps on sale have enabled Ordnance Survey to publish two experimental maps, which will succeed or fail by consumer reaction alone.     

THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY IN THE NATIONAL MAPPING ACTIVITIES OF THE ORDNANCE SURVEY OF NORTHERN IRELAND

Since 1960, photogrammetry has played a leading role in the acquisition of survey data within the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland. The decision to create a digital topographic database for Northern Ireland has changed the philosophy and practice of photogrammetry within the organisation and these changes are discussed in this paper.     

A knowledge based system for cartographic symbol design

Abstract

The work of the Ordnance Survey in Scotland has been rarely considered at a local level. Several bodies in Glasgow contributed to an extensive correspondence regarding the plan of the city and the appropriate scales of survey. This paper discusses the representation as an insight onto a wider perspective of the development of Ordnance Survey policy in the mid-Victorian era.     

A FIFTY-YEARS RETROSPECT

Abstract

The Ordnance Survey and the War.—I shall not inflict upon the readers of this Review any very long account of the work of the Ordnance Survey during the Great War. At that time the work of the Survey suffered from one necessary disadvantage: all the young men on its establishment, whether in the R.E. Companies or on the Civil Staff, left for active service. As a slight compensation for this inevitable dislocation all money difficulties in the preparation of maps for war disappeared.     

THE POST-WAR PROGRAMME OF THE ORDNANCE SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN

Abstract

In 1938 the committee to investigate the activities of the Ordnance Survey, presided over by Lord Davidson, issued its final report. One of the terms of reference of this committee was “to review the scales and styles of Ordnance Survey maps placed on sale to the public and to recommend whether any changes are desirable”.     

Living Dinosaurs – A Pessimistic View of the Digital Future?

Abstract

A dealer in second-hand maps, mostly Ordnance Survey maps, looks to the future of map dealers in the light of technological advances and the digital age.     

THE USE OF AIR PlIOTOGRApHS BY THE ORDNANCE SURVEY

Abstract

During the last year, the Air Survey Section, Field Division, Ordnance Survey, have had many visitors. Most of them have been surprised at what they have seen: some at the fact that we are able to make so much use of air photographs even in the largest scale surveys, and some at the small amount of information we seem able to extract from them. This paper is an attempt to give in some detail the ways in which air photographs are used to solve the problems of the Ordnance Survey, why they are used and their limitations for our purposes.     

The Military Map of the United Kingdom and its Impact on Mapping in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

Considerable attention has been paid in the literature to the changing style of Ordnance Survey mapping in the twentieth century. However, little has been written about the origins of the characteristic appearance of the first multi-colour editions, other that the Ordnance Survey used a military edition that was already in production. The distinctive style grew out of the work of a committee established in 1892 by the War Office to consider future army requirements for a map of the UK. This paper explores the work of the committee and its long-term implications for the look of mapping in the twentieth century.     

Coloured Roads on Ordnance Survey First Edition 1 : 2500 Plans and One-Inch Maps 1897–1935, and the Rights Of Way Disclaimer

Abstract

In 1892 a government committee of inquiry into the Ordnance Survey suggested that the Survey should make a distinction between public and private second class roads at the one-inch scale. This study is confined to England and Wales and looks at the nineteenth-century practice of colouring roads on the large-scale plans, and compares the representation of coloured rural roads on early Ordnance Survey one-inch maps with near contemporary highway records of the county of Huntingdonshire, sixteen rural district councils in six counties and an estate in Suffolk. The results show that all but four of the coloured roads on the one-inch maps in these areas are recorded as publicly maintainable highways.     

THE ORDNANCE SURVEY FOOT/METRE CONVERSION RATIO

Abstract

The Figure of the Earth used by the Ordnance Survey for its work in Great Britain is that given by Sir George Airy in the “Encyclopaedia of Astronomy” in an article on the Figure of the Earth. It is universally known as Airy's Figure.     

The role of the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the future of the British national mapping agency in a society which is markedly different from that in which the Ordnance Survey Review Committee of 1979 worked. The objective is to ascertain which topographic information is needed, who should provide it, on what terms and through which mechanisms. Prior to making an attempt to answer these questions, the essential characteristics of Ordnance Survey (OS) are summarised as deduced from available documentary evidence; the changing attitudes to information as a commodity, the growing competition in British mapping and the government's stringent requirements from the Survey are also outlined as just three of the many complexities which affect OS. Building upon Smith's classic 1979 paper and subsequent experience, the rationale for government involvement in mapping is examined. It is concluded that the Survey has a continuing vital role though there are a number of steps which the OS should take in order to adapt to changing circumstances.     

Reflections on Cartography as the British Cartographic Society Celebrates its Golden Jubilee

Abstract

A questionnaire to 128 drivers included map reading tasks using ½-inch to 1 mile maps produced by Philips (Shell Motoring Maps) and by the Ordnance Survey, followed by questions about which of the two maps was preferred and about the features required in a road map.     

Specialist Maps Prepared by German Military Geologists for Operation Sealion: the Invasion of England Scheduled for September 1940

Abstract

During the Second World War, the German army developed the largest organization of any nation ever to contribute military applications of earth science in wartime. In the summer of 1940, its military geologists assisted planning for potentially the greatest amphibious assault to that time in history by preparing maps which analysed the terrain of southeast England in terms of coastal geomorphology, groundwater supply, quarry sites for construction materials and off-road trafficability. These specialist maps were generated at scales of 1:50 000, 1:100 000 or 1:250 000 by annotating topographical base maps, derived from the then current Ordnance Survey maps at most similar scale, with data derived from maps and memoirs published by the Geological Survey of Great Britain or larger-scale Ordnance Survey maps. They represent an early example of geotechnical mapping skills developed more fully in the German armed forces for operations elsewhere later in the war.