The herald., 1897-08-01
BIOGRAPHIES
ARE CHEAP.
That Is Because Maps Are
Now Traced in Wax.
How It Is Done.

Until little more than a quarter Of
century ago, all good maps were
printed from either copper or steel
plates, on which the lines representing
rivers, mountains, shores, canals, high
ways, railroads, and boundaries, the
dots showing towns, the hatchings that
stood for big cities, the stars for capi-
tails, and the letters making up the
names of all these things, had been en-
graved in reverse, at cost of much time
and labor. These plates were exceed
ingly delicate, and soon wore out, so
that every map publisher had to count
the re-engraving of his plates among
his constant and heavy expenses. Be-
Sides the printing of copper or steel
plates is slow and very costly. Wood
engraving and lithography were practi-
cally the only other methods of repro
duction known at that time; and though
they were, and are, admirable methods
of reproduction for many purposes, they
are not we'll fitted to map work. Under
these circumstances good maps were
expensive and new map plates were
sometimes almost as valuable as thin
sheets of gold of similar size.
Naturally many persons were looking
/ for some new way to reproduce maps.
1t was a Buffalo man who, in 1870, was
| lucky enough to hit on a practical
method. Whether he made fortune
out of it, or not, I have never heard,
but it is certain that more than one
big publishing house has added thou
sands to it's dividends through his dis
covery; and, better yet, you may now
buy aliases containing first class speci-
mems of the cartographer's art as cheap
ly as any other printed books Of SINH
lar size
The basis of the modern map plate is,
as it was in the old days, perfectly
smooth metal plate that has been dress
ed with a sheet of wax, made absolute
ly uniform in thickness. If the map is
to be especially fine and accurate, like
those in high-grade school geography
or a first class atlas, the wax is very
thin-sometimes no thicker than sheet
of stiff paper; but if it is to merely be
used in connection with a railroad time
table and extreme accuracy is not need
ed, or if there are to be few details, as
in a large scale real estate map, the
wax is thicker, sometimes being a full
eighth of an inch.
When the waxed plates are all ready,
pen and ink drawings of the map to be
TepTOuuceu are given TO the operators.
They first draw in the hair lines, such
as the parallels of latitude and the cir
cles of longitude, with rules and sharp,
needle-like tools. With little wheels,
toothed so as to produce the peculiarly
shaped markings desired, they put in
the boundary lines between the town.
ships, counties, states and countries.
The straight and the uniformly curved
lines ere put in by the less experienced
men; the crooked lines, showing rivers,
irregular boundaries, shore lines, etc.,
are made only by workmen of expert
ence, who must also be possessed of
considerable artistic ability.
After all these have been drawn in,
the names of the rivers, lakes, cities,
mountains, ETC., receive attention; and
a knowledge of the method here en-
ployed will explain why, in the new
maps, the lettering is so regular and
uniform, as If printed from type, where
as the lettering in the old engraved
man, always showed that slight irregu-
larity which proclaimed it to be hand
made. All the letter-making in the new
map plates is done with regular type,