The Lebanon express. (Lebanon, Linn County, Or.) 1887-1898, 1888-10-19
HOW MAPS ARs MADE.


Require Months of Labor.
The story OF a dot-a fortune in d
hair-line the making of a map
Dot stories fill row OF walnut cases;
the "reminiscences of dotted lines occn-
py thousands OF pigeonholes; library
of crooked marks is piled to the cell
ing of fiye-story block on Monroe
street. 1t is the largest map house in
! the world, ard for twelve years has
printed LOCO. 600 maps d week-624.-
000.0 pieces of linen paper covered
with dots. lines and crooked marks
Fortune lies in the accuracy of the
lines and stories in the locations of fiIe
dots. Maps are as necessary to real
estate men as title deeds. and nearly
as much depends on their accuracy.
A map is plain, simple thing that
tells its vanished tale at glance
How Is it made? Until about the time
of the great fire maps were engraved
ON stone. copper or steel. The process
was very slow. tedious and expensive.
The plates soon wore out and maps
cost about as much as sheet of gold.
About 1870 Buffalo man invented the
PlONIcS VI i14ftDc OlA " 4
revolutionized map-making. and now
maps are as common and nearly as
cheap as newspapers
The map-malzer works in room
whose temperature can not run below
ninety degrees. Few men work at it
longer than four years, though years
OF apprenticeship are required to make
them expert. The heat becomes un-
! endurable IN the end and they go into
some other employment.
Preparatory to making the original
plate melted beeswax and some hard
ening ingredient 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 eight of an inch
1 thick Rough pen aud 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 stlaight-edges. The dotted lines
! indicate county or township boundaries
are made with little wheels. on whose
I designed lines. All crooked lines are
made by hand and require an artisfs
| eye. The names of towns. rivers
countries and the like are impressed
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 all the lines and letters
are in, the wax is placed under a cooler
temperature. which hardens it. The
wax is then covered with black lead
and the steel plate. with its waxen
coat, is Suspended in an electr0typing
solution. The copper in the solution
covers the black lead and forms hard
| plate wliich is called the original. The
wax Is then peeled of and the printing
surface IS presented. The thin copper
| plate is backed up with type metal
and the plate i ready for use. Il i
ususlly preserved, however for the
making of stereotype plates from
| which the actual printing is done
In the preparation OF the etchings
| great care Is required to keep the wax
at the proper temperature. as a de-
gree too low would make it hard to
work aud degree too high would
melt and probably destroy it. Often
| many hundred thousand maps of the
same pattern are ordered and from
twenty to forty plates are made from
the original. If the maps are small
so many of these plates as cen be used
conveniently are placed side by side
on the presses and sheet of maps is
printed at each impression. The or
;,
finished when it leaves the press. The
better maps are sized and vanished.
The larger ones are mounted on roll
ers and wooden strips. This com
pletes the mechanical process of the
making of map.
But this is the smallest part of q
map. The unseen work. the prepara-
tion of the original draft. represents
the time, labor and money expended.
The story of the dot is not woven in a
day. Post-offiee towns are located by
copies of papers in the Post-offiee De
partment at Washington: the chief en-
gineers of the railroads send profIes
of their lines; county surveyors make
maps of their localities. Where the
Government has made surveys the To-
cation of a section, township or coun-
ty line is easily made. But the six.
mile township system was not thought
OF until the Western reserve of Ohio
was surveyed. In the older States.
where a boundary line begins at 3
stone and runs to a white-oak tree
the trouble begins. Good local map:
are used in these States. But in
countries where no Government sur
veys have been made the creates
difficulties are encountered. = Chfca9t
NetcS.