The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1871-07-21
Spherical Geography.

In these days Of universal inter
eommunication-ofrailway lines and
steamship routes, and telegraphs
crossing continents and oceans
every man who would keep up with
the great facts and enterprises of
ace finds his schoorknowledge Of
Geographv utterly inadequate and
offsn fallacious. He finds some Of
the most important facts as to rela-
tive location and distances breaking
mon his mind as new revelations.
His ideas of places and their rela-
tions within the several countries
may be correct enough, but not so
of those whose distance is measured
by an arc on the earth's surface.
As to these, the ideas given by our
study Of map-geography were full
Of errors.
Every school-boy knew and knows
that Alabany is north of New York,
and that Buffalo is west of Alabany:
but how many are there who learned
in sehoOl-days that Newfoundland is
right along the direct route from
New York to Liverpool, and moi
away north Of it; or, that the Azores
are on the direct course to Portugal;
or, that Japan is on the due course
of the ocean steamers from San
Francisco to China; or the wonderful
differences in distances along the
high northern parallels compared
with the southern-as, for instance,
that the western point Of Lake Su-
perior is $50 miles nearer to Puget S
Sound than Chicago is to San Fran
cisco?
How many of US, who have not re-
newed and rectifed our geography
by the study of the globe, realize
that the Gulf of Mexico penetrates
North America at the Isthmus Of
Tehuantepec, as far as the western
boundary Of Missouri? or, that much
of the western coast of South Amer
lea is really east of New York?
The mere mention of these illu-
sions reminds US how numerous and
how fixed they are. Once pictured
in the mind, it is, as we say, "very
hard to get them out of our heads. y
Now, the true way is so to learn ge-
ography as never to get them in.
To correct these wrong impressions,
received from the attempt to under
stand the surface Of a sphere from
a plane, there is urgent need Of rep
resentation Of the globes. To meet
this want effectlany, there is requir-
ed something very different from
the costly and heavy globes that
adorn our libraries. The real want
is a light, portable globe, easily
placed at the study table, OF hung
over it, perfectly manageable in the
hand, soft and pleasant to the eye,
and so cheap as to be made univer-
sal as education itself.
The beautiful India rubber globes,
recently Invented, appear to embrace
all these advantages; and gladly
learn that they are now to be offered
for general introduction into schools.
They will give new charm and a
new value to the study of one Of the
most pleasant and useful branches
of science. They are plainly printed
and agreeably colored, so that the
eye rests upon them without that
glare which always comes from
vanished sphere. Ocean routes and
telegraph and railway lines may be
easily traced upon them, which will
give clearer comprehension of trans
continental lines lines of communi-
cationthan pages Of description.
1t was a favorite idea Of that emf
nent educator, Horace Mann, that
all the common school-rooms Of
Massachusetts should be supplied
with "gutta percha" globes. With
this view he invented ore himself;
hut their manufacture was not then
advanced enough to enable him 10
carry out his idea. Such a globe as
is now offered would have been
beyond his hopes, and would have
given him the power of making a
valuable addition to the appliances
of tie schools to which he devoted
his life. We trust our living teach
ers Will appreciate and avail them
eelves of this beautiful acquisition.