The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-08-26
Nll!llIllsagle
THE FIRST ALPINE PANORAMA.
Made BY Prisoner 1t Was a Great Work
In It's WAY.


nuts for the early photographers {.
crack, for their art was not sufficient,
advanced to enable them TO depict, will
the slightest degree of accuracy, tbs
wonderful tangle of mountain range.
and valleys in the great playground o
Europe. The maps of the fifteenth
century showed the Alps by roughly
drawn markings which did not repre-
sent the mountains in correct relations
one to another, nor even show with any
accuracy the directions in which the
ranges ran. II was not until near the
middle of the seventeenth century that
maps OF the Alps began to be made
with some slight approach TO scientific
merit A little later another way OF
denoring topography was devised,
which served very useful purpose.
.Nhis is the art of depicting panoramas
Showing a mountainous region as a
picture with its various peaks and other
characteristics in their proper rela tons.
1t is a curious fact that the beginning
of the art of panorama map making was
due to the work of a political prisoner
named J. B. Michel du Crest, who was
fortress of Aarburg in the Alps He
was Frenchman, who had committed
some offense against the state during
his residence in Berne, and it was
twenty years before he regained his
freedom after the gates of Aarburg
prison closed upon him During his
long confinement his pleasantcst hours
were spent in scientific study. He
mastered all the works of science which
were within his reach, and in 1884 he
conceived the idea of making a piano.
rama of the Alps, showing as accurate
II as possible the wonderful mountain
region which was within sight from his
prison in the fortress
He had been able to study the barom-
etical observations of Prof Scheuchzer,
who had attempted to ascertain the
heights of the mountains between
Gothard and Zurich. Michel du Crest,
however, had great doubts as to the
accuracy of these results, and they
were, IN fact, very erroneous, Gothard
being proclaimed as the highest mount
ain in Europe. The prisoner was
without any scientific instruments, but
cy as well as he could with the rude
material at hand.
In order to ascertain the bearings OF
the various mountains from the merid-
ian OF the fortress at Aarburg he made
out Of a board quadrant, TO which he
fastened two hands, one of them NOV
able and the other fixed. By making
the fixed hand coincide with the merid-
ian he could point the movabl hand in
the direction of each summit, and in
this way roughly determine the angles
and ascertain the position of the mount
ain with relation to the meridian and
10 surrounding mountains
Then II was necessary TO determine
the vertical height of the mountain
SUBMITS above the sea He knew the
height of Asrburg above the sea level ;
He made leveling instrument bv TAX
ing piece of eavestrough, closing the 4
ends, and filing it with water He Z
raised the eavestrough to the level Of .
his eye by fixing it to a support To .
one end of his level he attached a stick.
Then, standing at the other end and
at a mountain, he had the
actly covered the mountain summit
He knew that the length of the caves
trough was to the height of the stick as
the distance from himself TO the mount
ain was to the height of the mountain
If he knew the first three elements in
this proportion it would be easy to de-
duce from them the fourth, or the
height of the mountain
Unfortunately, he had great difficulty
in ascertaining the one series OF facts
necessary to make these observations
the mountains from his point of OBJ
He finally managed to get
hold of the best map of Switzerland
made in that day, and determined from
1t the distance of the various objects
from Aarburg. II happened that few
had been made from Aar-
burg 10 various mountains, the data for
which were IN his possession, and
there was reason to believe the meas
urements were quite trustworthy. By
these with the distances on
the map Michel reached the conclusion
that the map distances were almost in
one sixth too large, and so in
all his measurements on the map he
deducted one-sixth of the length indi-
Gated.
Having thus roughly ascertained the (
distances to the mountains il was easy /
to compute their approximate heights
He paid no attention 10 the influence of
and in his calculations
treated the earth as a perfect sphere,
and so 1t is not to be wondered that the |
results he obtained were not a very
close approximation of the facts But
with all the data he collected he was
/ bic TO get some idea of the mountain
heights, though MS caluiations were
often from 500 10 over I.000 feet out of
he way. II, however. he committed
good many blunderS, they were diStrib-
lted through all his calculations, and, !
Affecting all the mountains alike, they !
on the panorama he drew I
pretty nearly the correct relative pro- {
portions The panorama was 4 scien- !
the work done with as much accuracy
As could be expected under the circum-
stances, and it was much admired at !
the recent geogra phical exhibition in l
berne- where the curious old map was /
SEEM. Y sun. {
SCHOOL AND CHURCH.