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.     

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 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”.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

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 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.     

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.     

Editorial

Abstract

A reconstruction is made of the methods by which the Ordnance Survey of Great Britain pioneered a system for establishing the place-name nomenclature on its maps in the nineteenth century. Until 1820 there was little to differentiate the practice of the Survey from that of earlier cartographers but, thereafter, official surveyors were encouraged to consult a wide range of written and oral authorities and were instructed to record their findings in special name books. By the mid-nineteenth century the essentials of the modern system had been laid down and many thousands of local names published in map form for the first time.

This paper was read in a shorter form to the annual symposium of the Society in September 1970, at the University of Bristol.     

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.     

A FIFTY-YEARS RETROSPECT

Abstract

On returning from Central Africa I was posted, for ordinary duty, to Edinburgh, and after a short time I found myself again on the Ordnance Survey. Late in 1899 the South African War broke out, and early in 1900 I was sent out to South Africa in command of a very small Field Survey Section. But before describing the limited activities of this Section it may be as well to give some idea of the attitude of the higher civil and financial authorities towards the proposition that it is desirable to be prepared with maps of possible theatres of war.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

The Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland: An Outline of its History and Present Mapping Tasks

Abstract

This explains the formation of the Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland as a separate institution in 1921, when it took over the map series which until that time had been part of the Ordnance Survey (U. K.) responsibility. As happened with many mapping organisations, replanning and reorganisation took place after 1945; this included a triangulation for Northern Ireland to provide a basis for a new Irt"sh Grid, and the introduction of the 1:1250 scale for major urban areas.

The technical problems of reproduction and revision are then considered, and details given for each of the main series.     

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.     

Point Symbols: Investigating Principles and Originality in Cartographic Design

Abstract

This paper provides a summary of the proceedings and discussion at a conference entitled 'The Future History of Our Landscape', held in October 1992. This meeting explored the issues connected with the changing nature of the Ordnance Survey supply of spatial data, in particular its effect on the Copyright Libraries and their users. Technical and organisational matters concerned with the supply and use of digital data in the archival environment are considered.     

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.