Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-12-03
MAKING RAILROAD MAPS.


n Description OF the Method Now IN Use.
The Etchings.
The method of making railroad maps is de-
scribed as follows: Up to 1870 maps were
engraved on stone, copper or steel The pro-
cess was slow, tedious and expensive. The
plates soon wore out and maps were costly.
About this time the process of making maps
on wax was invented. 1t revolutioned one
kind of map making and they became al
most as cheap as newspapers. The map
maker works in a room the temperature of
which cannot so below 90 dogs. Few men
work at it longer than four years, though
yearso of apprenticeship are required to make
them expert. The heat becomes unendur-
able in the end, and they go into some other
employment
Preparatory to making the original plate
melted beeswax and some hardening insredi-
ent are poured on a highly polished metal
table For fine work the wax is as thin as a
piece of paper, but for the coarser kind the
waxen sheet is an eighth of an inch thicker
| Rough pen and ink drawings Of the work to
be done are given the operators. They draw
the hair lines with sharp pointed instruments
| by the aid of straight edges. TIE dotted
lines indicating county or township bound
aries are made with little wheels on whose
narrow edge are cut the peculiarly designed
lines. All crooked lines are made by hand
and require an artists eye. The names of
towns, rivers, countries and the like are i'm.
| pressed in the wax in type, letter by letter.
Every impression must cut through the wax
to the polished steel plate beneath, for the
map is made face down When ali the lines
! np1 1atta int ba tS r,in..ul n
cooler temperature, which hardens it, The
wax is then covered with black lead, and the
steel plate with its waxcn cast is suspended
in an electrotypng solution. The copper il
the solution covers the black lead and form:
a bard plate, which is called the original
The wax is then pulled off and the printing
surface is then presented The thin copper
plate is backed up with type metal and til,
plate is ready for use. II is usually pre-
served, however, for the making of stereo
type plates, from which the actual printin.
is done.
In the preparation of the etchings graa
care is required to keep the wax ii tn
proper temperature, as a degree too Low
would make it hard to work, and n degre
too high would melt and probably destroy it
Often many hundred thousand maps are or
dercd, and from twenty to forty plates ar
made from the original If the maps ar
small, so many of these plates as can be cor
veniently used are placed side by side on tn
presses, and a sheet of maps is printed q
each impression. The ordinary advertiser
map is finished when it leaves the press, hu
the others must so through more hands b,
fore they are ready for use. But this is til
! llaat -t nf bn Tho xr-or
the preparation of the original draft--rel
resents the time, labor and money expende
, upon these articles. The method of prepa
ing maps for places Of learning and for tt
use of those engaged in selling property
much more elaborate and costly, and tn
fact will be fully realized when it is STATE
that map lately finished in this city, mea
uring sixty-five inches square, was near
six years under way, and, when finished, co
sec, J0-Philadelphia Call