The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-01-14

VIII Be Done by q Machine Which
Looks Like a Bicycle.
New York Sun.
A new machine that looks something
like a bicycle is to be used by the en-
gineer corps of the army for map-mak-
ing purposes In Cuba. Two wheels, each
over three feet in circumference, the rear
one following in the track of the other,
work the mechanism of the machine.
AS three soldiers push the machine for
ward the map is drawn automatically,
showing the compass direction of the
route traversed and a line indicating al
titude will show a change of fifty feet
in 4evel for every inch recorded on the
paper. The machine Is called an oro-
graph because 1t records these differences
in level.
If it will do what is claimed for it. 1t
will make a route survey far more rap
idly than it could be carried out in any
other way, and combination of these
surveys will give fairly approximate
idea of the lay of the land. The ma
chine wilr thus serve the purposes of
topographic map-making, and the maps
produced will be more accurate than a
good many pioneer maps, and will serve
the needs of the regions mapped fairly
well till in time they are supplanted by
scientific topographic maps based upon
trigonometrical surveys.
a while ago a teacher in Brooklyn
used a bicycle during his summer vaca-
ton to help him make a tourist map Of
very interesting district in the Catskills.
His cyclometer recorded the distance,
and he took compass bearings at every
important bend in the roads and paths
and noted the big hills and ranges as he
went along. He took distances between
adj the towns, and even included in his
survey the rough wood roads and the
paths down steep slopes half hidden in
the underbrush, IL they led to some fine
outlook on the hillside that would de-
light the heart of the summer boarder.
His survey carried him over many mile
where the roads or paths were not adapt
ed for bicycling, but the cyclometer rec
ords were all right whether he rode the
wheel or trundred 1t.
Every little while he would stop to
fill page of his notebook with distances,
directions streams crossed and other in
teresting information. and in the even
Ing he would put the results of his days
work on his map, drawing 1t carefully
to scale. He stuck quite faithfully to this
amusement though he would sometimes
take few days off and see variety in
the mild diversions common to the Cat
skills but at the end of the summer he
had fine map that showed all the high
ways and byways in the, heart of the
mountains for miles around; and in order
that the benefits of his toll might not be
confined to his own family he had his
map engraved when he returned to the
city. and 1t is bit of photographic
work that is worth possessing if one
spends a little while in the region where,
it was done.
The ingenious photographic bicycle
which the government will send to Cuba
will do it's mapping as it goes along, and
will show differences of level as well as
distances. but it, is safe to say that the
men in charge of 1t win not have much
fun as the Brooklyn teacher got out of
his bicycle mapping tours. They cannot
ride their machine, and it will take three
men to push It; but If all goes well they
may accomplish good deal of useful
work in an interesting island that Is still
very poorly mapped.