Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-06-24
A WONDERFUL MAI.
1t VIII Show Every Roa and FARM
house in the United States.

1t VIII Show Every Road and Farm
house in the United States.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, June 13.-While the making
of a great map can hardly be called a con-
tribution to literature, yet the map which
is now being made for the government
will, when it is completed, be of vast serv-
ice to those who in the future shall under
take to write historical or scientific OF
economic essays, or works based upon the
development of the United States.
The great map of the United States will,
on it's completion, be, both in respect to
size and minuteness of detail, far and away
the most comprehensive and magnificent
map in the world. Some idea of it's i'm
mensity will be gained by those who will
visit the Worlds fair. A comparatively
small section of it is to be exhibited. This
section will be some six feet in length and
four feet in width, and yet it will contain
only a part of the superficial likeness of
the state of Connecticut, a bit of Long Is
land and eastern New York. Upon this
section of the great map will be indicated
every stream, brook, hillock, mountain,
valley, city and farmhouse contained
within the limit of the surface of the Sec
ton thus illustrated. 1t will show every
public and private road, and will be as
complete as a surveyors map of a small
section of q township.
What this bit of the great map of the
United States is. the map itself will be
when completed. 1t is the intention to
make the details SO minute that every iso-
lated farmhouse in the land will be desig
mated upon it. Of course it will be impos
sible to designate buildings in compactly
built cities or villages, but farms and de.
tached buildings can be easily indicated,
so great is the size of the map.
This map will tell at a glance what the
superficial aspect of the United States is
or was when the map was made, but it
will be impossible for anybody to take the
entire map in at a glance. 1t would be
just as easy to fix the eye upon every bios.
som in a field nearly an acre in surface
area. This great ms when completed
would, if spread out, cover such a field OF
very nearly. 1t will be a little over three.
quarters of an acre in superficial area. OF
course it would be impossible to suspend
such a map so as to make it available fol
practical use, and therefore it will lave tc
De puDllSneQ IN SecClOnS.
The enormity of the work involved and
the scrupulous fidelity to accuracy Of
detail entail such a slow rate of progress
that it will be from twenty-five to thirty
years before this map is completed
Already something like ten years labo,
has been bestowed upon it, so that, when
the geological survey which has the work
in charge reports to congress that it is fin
ished, a span Of something like forty years
from the time of its beginning will have
occurred. Many of the patient and enthu,
siastic scientists who began the work will
have passed away, and men will complete
it who were either not born or who were i1
early childhood when it was begun. More
over it is a very expensive undertaking
and will have cost when finished a great
many thousands of dollars-no one can tel
how many.
Some of our most distinguished public
men have been greatly interested in thi!
map. General Garfield, while he was ir
congress, was an enthusiastic supporter O.
the plan of making such a map, and b.
used now and then to drop into the offic.
of the geological survey and chat with tt.
greatest enthusiasm about the work.
When Mr.. Ingalls, was senator, he, too
being an enthusiastic geographer and hav
ing a great fondness for gaining Statistical
information of any sort regarding tn,
United States, was much interested il
the progress Of this work. And, of coarse
geographers, not only in the United States
but in Europe, have regarded the under
taking as the most important of it's kline
since mapmaking became an exact science
In addition to this section of the grea
map of the United States the geological
survey is causing to be constructed an out
line map of the country, which will also b,
exhibited at the Worlds fair. 1t is to b,
spherical in shape, bearing the same pro
portion to the section Of Il sphere that tn,
United States does to the sphere of tn,
world. BY it at a glance the different
elevations, the tablelands, the mountain
ridges and the valleys will be indicated il
outline, the highest peaks Of the noun
tains being proportionately elevated a!
much above the sea level as are the peak!
of the Rocky mountains above the Allan
tic and Pacific coast lines.
To make this outline map, or map in re
lief, is a work Of peculiar delicacy, and il
has been committed to a very ingeniou.
mechanic in Washington. The process i.
too technical to be explained so as to b.
clearly understood in a brief article. II
some respects it resembles the stereotypinl
process made use of by newspapers, al
though in others it is entirely different
from that. The process enables any mum
Der of duplicates to be taken, and two o.
three will be sent abroad to geographical
societies which are anxious to secure them
The making of this spherical relief map,
which gives in proportionate outline the
variations and altitude of the superficial
area of the United States, has excited the
interest of many congressman, who regard
it as quite a treat to visit the office of the
skilled mechanic, near the old wal depart
ment building in Washington, and watch
the delicate art with which the work pro
crosses. E. j. EDWARDS.