US2352413A - Production of mosaic maps - Google Patents

Description

June 27,1944. E. A. scHucH ET AL PRODUCTION OF MOSAIC MAPS Filed Nov. 9, 1943 ISLHND 940.10, E

W l TNESS e variations in the Patented June 27, 1944 PRODUCTION OF MOSAIC MAPS lward A. Schllch and Joseph F; Masino, Philadelphia, Pa., assignors to Aero Service Corporation, Philadelphia. Pa., a corporation of Penn- Sylvania Application November 9, 194.3, Serial No. 509,558 9 Claims.l (01.3351) The invention relates more particularly to the making of .fsuch maps from a series of aerial photographs and is especially directed to facillitating'` preparationl of individual mosaics of 4 the units of area into which the entire terrain e to be mapped is divided tothereby enable such `units together- With an accompanying indiciaoa'rrying border tor'be readily photographed as a preliminary tothe preparation of photographic reproductionsthereof or of printing plates for the purpose of massfreproduction.

In brief, the *procedure customarily followed in the preparation 'of mosaic -mapsis vto take a series of overlapping aerial photographs of the area to be mapped in such way that each willY cover a portion of the terrain included in the preceding one. New negatives corrected for l height ofthe plane5 its tilt and 'other factors aremade from the original ones and from them suitable prints prepared. Through ground survey or in any other convenient way, prominent control points are located which are then plotted on a base preferably ruled in 'polyconic projection with meridians of longitude and parallels of latitude to divide it into a plurality of substantially rectangular units of suitable size, such as 'l1/2 or 15 minutes on each side, depending on the desired scale and by radial triangulation or other known methods additional control points are then plotted on the base.` The photographs are next cut and pasted on the base or its equivalent in proper coordination with the control points with resultant production of a mosaic map of the entire area. Lines drawn on the map and coinciding with the meridians and parallels on the baserdivide it into units and a border of white paper carrying the indicia which it is desired to have surround the individual map of the particular areaincluded in a givenunit when it is ultimately reproduced is then pasted around it. The unit and its border are next photographed and the negative so obtainedused for production of either photographicreproductions or printing plates of that particular unit and its surrounding indicia-carrying White border.

Necessarily the border pasted about the unit extends into the adjacent units so that after the i'lrst unit and its border is photographed the border must be removed entirely to expose all the areas included in the others and other borders then mustl be consecutively pasted about each of them preparatory to photographing and likewise subsequently removed.` These operations consume much labor and time.

` t is therefore a principal object of the present invention to improve this customary procedure f from the point at which the control points are `plotted on the base by avoiding `preparationof the mosaic thereon and subsequent bordering and photographing of the individual units comprised therein, and to this end the invention contemplates the preparation of individual mosaics of the areas comprised in several units yet in such manner that each will bear proper relation to the adjacentl units in the map as a Whole Vwhereby the individual mosaics may be then readily surrounded with indicia-carrying borders v preparatory to their being photographed without overlapping any of the other units. Other objects, advantages and novel operations and procedures comprehended by the-inf vention or resulting'therefrom are hereinafter more particularly pointed out or will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following dev-scription of one method of practising it in the preparation lof a, mosaic map of a given area in polyconic projection, reference beind had to the accompanying drawing.

In the said drawing,

Fig. l is a plan view of a base divided into units of latitude and longitude with the outline of an area which is to be mapped indicated thereon in dotted lines; v

Fig. 2 is a plan view on a much larger scale of one of the boards on which the mosaics of the units `comprised in the map are composed conditioned for beginning the actual mosaicing operation;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the board of Fig. 2 after the mosaic has been formed thereon; Fig. 4 is an enlarged transverse section on the line '4-4 in Fig., 3 looking in the `direction of the arrows;`

1 ymarginal portion of the mosaic of Fig. 3 with its Fig. 5 is a detail plan view ofthe right hand vsupporting tape after removal from the board;

Fig. 6 isanother board similar to Fig. 2 on which the formation of the mosaic of the unit lying to the right of that shown in Fig. 3 'is in process; and

- Fig.r 7 is a plan View of the board of Fig. 3

' with the mosaic unit thereon surrounded by an indicia-carrying border preparatory to its being photographed for reproduction.

In the production of a map in accordance with the invention ythe customary procedure is followed up to and including the operating of plotting the control points p on the base B which is preferably of .sufficient size to include at the desired scale the entire area to be mapped. To facilitate explanation this area is outlined in dotted lines in Fig. 1 and for present purposes is assumed to be an island but it will be understood that in practice the outline of the area is not necessarily drawn on the base. The various control points areshown as plotted on the base as well as the parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude which divide it into a plurality of units approximating rectangles in shape and herein referred to as such. In practice their size is normally determined by the scale of the map; in the present instance they are shownas minutes on each side with nine. rectangles iin all consecutively numbered from 1 to 9.

A series of boards made of any suitable material such as press board and, each considerably larger in size than the units are provided in number suilicient to correspond to the number of the latter. It Will be assumed they are respectively numbered similarly to the units and consequently -theboard,shown-in FigZ is VKdesignated as 5 to correspond to thecenter unit 5 on the base and thatl shown in Fig. 6 is numberedV to correspond to unit 6. l

YA rectangle corresponding in size to those on the base isruled at the center-of each board and strips oimaterial arethen neatly xed about Y its Ymargin so asfto denne Ior partially denne it.

Strong paperhaving a suitable adhesive onone -side and from 4 to 6 in Width is preferably employed for thispurpose but other material -such as cloth may be utilized instead, and while it is of convenience to have the adhesive applied to the material during Vcourse of manufacture material devoid of adhesive maybe used and suitably pasted on the board. For convenience, the'term tape is employed herein to designate -this strip material.

'Preferably-the ends of the tape are not overlapped but it is immaterial whether'the longer lor longitudinal strips Ill, H be extended across the ends of the transverse strips i2, `I3 or vice versa so long as the rectangle is neatly and accurately bordered by the strips as a whole or in lsome cases only in part as will hereinafter be more fully explained.

After the tape has been applied to the several boards, tracings are made on traoingcloth or the like respectively showing the control points lying within each rectangleon base Band also some of those in contiguous rectangles, each tracing preferably covering an area on the base substantially equivalent to that included between the youter edges of the tapes on the boards. Thus a tracing of unit 5 `will extend into all the other units on the base for a distance of 4 or 5" and when applied to that board the control po-ints p shown on the tracing can be plotted thereon by prick-ing through the tracing cloth not only in the area bounded by the tapes but also on the tapes themselves Vso that when the tracing is removed the points will appear on the board and tapes as Ashown in Fig. 2.

Using these control points, the operator then cuts and fits the corrected photographs of the rarea included in unit 5 and extending onto the surrounding tapes upon board 5 in the ordinary way in which mosaics of this character are composed, pasting the photographs I5 down upon themselves on theboard and tapes in somewhat .overlapping relation so that after completion `of the ,mosaic an enlarged section on line 4-4 in'Fig. 3 .will appear as in Fig. 4, photographs I5 .overlying at different points I5 and being pasted to tape Il and the latter of course lying on and adhering to board 5.

A straight edge is next applied to the face of the mosaic coincident with the inner edges of the tapes, to wit along lines IU', Il', l2', I3 and the mosaic cut through with a sharp blade along these lines, thus separating Athose portions of pulling-it free whereby that portion of the mosaic bounded by'lines- HV-I 3 inclusive alone remains on the board. If the cuts made along the inner edges' of the shorter tapes are terminated at the -inner edges of the longer ones the latter will include such portions of the mosaics as lay in prolongation of' the shorter tapes as shown in Fig. 5 and these portions may then be cut from the longer strips atthe points a-a'b-b inv Fig. 5, thereby reducing the center portion of the strip to a. length exactly corresponding to that oi lthe mosaic on bo-ard 5 from whichl the tape was de tached. Ii, however, the cuts along inner edges Aoi the shorter strips arecontinued'across the ends of the longer ones, as is sometimes the case, thesquared corner pieces c of the tapes are removed separately from the board and carefully preserved.

It will now be apparent thatfthe portion of the mosaic on tape Il delineates that part of the total area of the terrain which in the complete map thereof lies in unity 6 contiguous to unit V5; likewise, that the corresponding portion oi the mosaic on tapel lil represents that contiguous o part of the terrain lying in unit 4 on the opposite side of unit 5; that the portions of the mosaic on tapes I2, 'I3 represent the contiguous areas of the terrain in units 2 and 8 respectively, and the corner pieces c, those portions in the corners of units I, 3, 1 and 9 contiguous to the adjacent corners of unit 5.

The operator now selects another board on which to form a mosaic of' the area included in one of vthe rectangles lying adjacent unit 5, for example, that lying in unit 6. If this area will cover the entire center rectangle ruled on board l6, the latter is taped on the three'sides thereof which lie remote from the adjacent side of rectangle 5,'but if the area will cover only a portion of the central rectangle it is necessary to into the central rectangle and adjacent tapes in a manner similar to that in which the control points were plotted on taped board 5. The mosaic on tape Il is then stripped off by raising one of its ends and pulling it away from the tape and because of the overlapping relation of portions of the photographs comprising the mosaic it can be readily detached from the tape in a single piece. It is next pasted on board 6 with its longitudinal edge coincident with that side of the rectangle on the board which in the map area as a whole lies proximate unit 5. In other words, if the line separating units 5 and 6 cn base B is as shown, the 91 meridian, the longitudinal edge of the detached strip of mosaic should coincide with that side of the rectangle on board 6 representing that meridian, while its ends should coincide with the parallels 47 and 47 15" defining the .north and south edges of rectangles and 6. The strip when thus pasted on the board serves as a starting point from which to complete with the assistance of the plotted control points the remainder of the mosaic appearing in unit 6, this mosaic of course being extended out onto tapes Il and I8 just as the previously formed mosaic was extended onto tapes I2 and I3.

The mosaic is then severed along lines I'I', I8', tapes Il and I8 stripped'from board 6 and the mosaics superposed on the tapes respectively separated therefrom and applied in appropriate positions, preferably in conjunction with the corner pieces c of the original mosaic formed on board 5 and covering the areas extending into units 3 and 9, respectively to boards 3 and'9 after the control points have been plotted thereon; the mosaics are then completed on these boards, again using those portions of the mosaics transferred thereto from the preceding boards as starting points. In a generally similar way those portions of the mosaics on tapes I0, I2 and I3 originally on board 5 are stripped fromtheir respective tapes, appropriately applied to boards 2, 4 and 8, proper mosaics composed on these boards and marginal portions of them applied to boards I and I and used as starting points for their mosaics.

Of course the exact order followed in transferring the marginal portions of the rst mosaic composed on one of the boards, that is, those portions of that mosaic extending over its tapes, to the boards on which the contiguous mosaics are to be assembled is a matter of choice, frequently governed to some extent by the topographical features of the may itself, the location of the control points and other factors, but it will be apparent that after the initial mosaic is completed, as on board 5, and the marginal portions thereof cut off, they can be applied to a plurality of other boards at once, and these placed in the hands of diierent operatives who can work simultaneously in completing thermosaics thereon. 'Ihis effects an enormous saving of time over that required in rst composing on base B or some other equivalent surface a mosaic of the entire area to be mapped since it is ordinarily impossible for more than two or three operatives to Work simultaneously in assembling it because of lack of space, mutual interference and the like.

After the tapes are removed from each board so as to leave thereon only that portion of mosaic covering the terrain included in the corresponding unit on the base and thus in `the case of board 5, for example, that portion of the terrain lying between parallels 47 and 47 15" and meridians 90 and 90 15, a strip of white paper or the like carrying appropriate indicia such as figures showing the latitude and longitude, declination arrows, bar scales, a diagram of the area of which the included map forms a part, its number therein and the like (conventionally indicated on strip 20 in the drawing), is pasted about the mosaic as shown in Fig. 7 and the latter, including this border or margin, is then photographed preparatory to the making of photographic reproductions or printing plates from which the sheet may be reproduced in quantities. The border and enclosed mosaic may then be removed from the board to condition the latter for further use or retained on it for any desired period.

It will thus be apparent that the invention entirely obviates the disadvantages inherent in the customary practice of pasting an indicia-carrying border about each rectangle as dened on the entire mosaic map so that it necessarily extends over portions thereof contiguous to such rectangle preparatory to photographing it and the border as a unit. Moreover the use of the marginal mosaic strips as starting points in the preparation of the individual mosaics of which they form parts enhances accuracy of composition while, as above noted, the time required for completing the mapping of a given area may be greatly reduced by the practice of our invention over that which would normally be required by the methods hitherto in vogue. The invention therefore marks a distinct advance 'in that branch of the art of Cartography to which it relates through enhancement of accuracy and reduction in time and cost.

While for the purpose of enabling those skilled in the art to comprehend and practise the invention one manner of performing it has been herein described and illustrated in considerable detail, it will be understood that it is not thereby desired or intended to restrict or limit the invention specifically thereto as the principles thereof are capable of numerous changes and modifications to adapt them to different operating conditions and the like without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as dened in the appended claims.

Having thus described our` invention, we claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States:

1. That improvement in the art of producing mosaic maps which comprises the steps of dividing a base into a plurality of substantially rectangular units by lines representing parallels and meridians and plotting on the base control points lying within the terrain to be mapped, dening on .each of a plurality of boards an area corresponding to one of said units, applying adhesive tape outwardly of and along at least one edge of the dened area on each board, plotting appropriate control points in said defined area and on the tape, assembling on the defined area and on the tape by the aid of said plotted control points a photographic mosaic of that portion of the terrain which lies in the unit on the base corresponding to said deiined area and in a portion of the `contiguous unit, cutting the assembled mosaic in coincidence with the inner edge of the tape, stripping the tape and marginal portion of the mosaic superposed thereon from the board, separating said portion from the tape and applying it to another board having appropriate control points plotted thereon with itscut edge representing the parallel or meridian separating the two contiguous units on the base, and then assembling on said second board a mosaic of the terrain contiguous to and in prolongation of said marginal portion to thereby form in conjunction therewith a complete mosaic of the terrain lying in the said contiguous unit on the base.

2. That improvement in the art of producing mosaic maps which comprises the steps of dividing a base into a plurality of substantially rectangular units by lines representing parallels and meridians and plotting on the base control points lying within the terrain to be mapped, dening on each of a plurality of boards an area corresponding to one of said units, applying adhesive tape outwardly of and along at least one edge of the dened area on each board, preparing a tracing of control points in two contiguous units on the base, applying the tracing to one of said boards with the points occupying the same relative position with respect to its deiined area as they occupy with respect to the units on the base and marking said points through the tracing onto the said area and taparernoving the tracing and assembling on the deiined area and on the tape by the aid of said transferred control points a photographic kmosaic of that portion of the terrain which lies in the unit on the base corresponding to said defined area and in a portion of the contiguous unit, cutting the assembled mosaic in coincidence with the inner edge of the tape, stripping the tape and marginal portion of the mosaic superposed thereon from the board, separating said portion from the tape and applying it to another board having appropriate control points plotted thereon with its cut edge representing the parallel or meridian separating the two contiguous units on the base, and then assembling on said seco-nd board a mosaic of the terrain contiguous to and in prolongation of said marginal portion to thereby form in conjunction therewith a complete mosaic of the terrain lying in the said contiguous unit on the base.

3. That improvement in the art of producing mosaic maps which comprises the steps of'plotting control points on the base ruled to deiine a plurality of contiguous unit areas, applying adhesive tape to a plurality of individual boards to respectively define and bound on each at least in part an area corresponding to one of said unit areas, transferring to the so-dened area and adjacent tape on one of said boards control points appearing in two contiguous areas on the base, assembling a photographic mosaic on said board and tape with the aid of the transferred control points, cutting the assembled mosaic in coincidence with the inner edge of the tape, stripping the latter and any marginal portions of the mosaic superposed thereon from the board, separating said portions from the tape and applying them respectively to other boards with their cut edges respectively corresponding to the lines on the first board along which the cuts were severally made, and lthen assembling on said other boards mosaics of the terrain contiguous to the portions of the said marginal portions of the original mosaic thereon to thereby form on each such board in conjunction with said portions a complete mosaic of the terrain adjacent that included in the mosaic remaining on the first board.

4. That improvement in the art of producing mosaic maps which comprises the steps of plotting control points on a base ruled to define a plurality of contiguous unit areas, applying adhesive tape to a plurality of individual boards to respectively define and bound on each at least in part an area corresponding to one of said unit areas, transferring t the so-deflned area and adjacent tape on one of said boards control points appearing in two contiguous areas on the base, assembling a photographic mosaic on said board and tape with the aid of the transferred control points, cutting the mosaic on lines coincident with the inner edge of the tape, stripping the tape from the board while leaving the mosaic in the defined area thereon, surrounding said mosaic 4with an indicia-carrying border, and photographing it and the border as a unit as a preliminary step in preparing reproductions thereof.

5. That improvement in the art of producing mosaic maps which comprises the steps of plotting control points on the base ruled to deiine a plurality of contiguous unit areas, applying adhesive tape to a plurality of individual boards to respectively denne and bound on each at least in part an area corresponding to one of said unit areas, transferring to the so-defined area and adjacent tape on one of said boards control points appearing in two contiguous areas on the base, assembling a photographic mosaic on said board and tape with the aid of the transferred control points, cutting the assembled mosaic in coincidence with the inner edge of the tape, stripping the latter and any mar-ginal portions of the mosaic superposed thereon from the board, separating said portions from the tape and applying them respectively to other boards with their cut edges respectively corresponding to the lines on the first board along which the cuts were severally made, assembling on said other boards mosaics of the terrain contiguous to the portions of the said marginal portions of the original mosaic thereon to thereby iform on each such board in conjunction with said portions a complete mosaic of the terrain adjacent that included in the mosaic remaining on the first board, and then cutting said last formed mosaics along predetermined lines at the boundaries of said deiined areas, removing the marginal portions from the boards, surrounding each remaining portion with an appropriate indicia-carrying border and photographing each such portion and its border as a unit.

6. That improvement in the art of producing mosaic maps which comprises the steps of ruling a base into substantially rectangular units on a scale representing a predetermined distance on a side and plotting on the base control points lying within the terrain to be mapped, applying adhesive tape to a plurality of individual boards to define thereon at least in part included areas corresponding to the units, selecting one of said boards for the preparation of a mosaic map of the terrain lying within a given unit on the base, plotting in the deiined area on said board control points corresponding to those in the given unit on the base and plotting on the tape other control points lying in a unit contiguous to the given unit, assembling with the aid of said control points on said defined area and tape a photographic mosaic of the terrain lying in the given unit and in that part of the contiguous unit proximate thereto, cutting the mosaic along the boundaries of the defined area, stripping the tape and superposed marginal portion of the mosaic from the board, separating said marginal portion from the tape and applying it to another board with its cut edge representing the line on the base between said contiguous units and then, using said marginal portion of the mosaic as a starting point, assembling on the second board additional mosaic representing terrain in the said contiguous unit.

"I, That improvement in the art of producing mosaic maps which comprises the steps of forming on a supporting surface having control points plotted thereon a mosaic of a part of the entire terrain to be mapped, defining a rectangular portion of the mosaic by cutting through the latter on right lines, removing from said surface any portions of the mosaic lying outside said rectangular portion, then applying an indicia-carrying border to said surface about said latter portion,

and finally photographing it and the border as a unit as a preliminary to reproduction.

8. That improvement in the art of producing mosaic maps which comprises the steps of forming on a supporting surface having control points plotted thereon a mosaic of a part of the entire terrain to be mapped, dening in the mosaic a rectangular portion by cutting through the mosaic on right lines, transferring one of the marginal portions of the mosaic lying outside the so-dei'ined portion to another supporting surface, and forming thereon an additional mosaic in prolongation of and conti-guous to the transferred portion.

9. That improvement in the art of producing mosaic maps which comprises the steps of forming on a supporting surface having control points plotted thereon a mosaic of a part of the entire terrain to be mapped, defining in the mosaic a rectangular portion by cutting through the mosaic on right lines, transferring one or the marginal portions of the mosaic lying outside the so-dened portion to another supporting surface and forming thereon an additional mosaic in prolongation of and contiguous to the transferred portion to cover at least in part an area thereon corresponding to that of the rectangular portion, severing and removing any marginal portions of the last-formed mosaic extending beyond that area, and then surrounding said mosaic with an indicia-carrying border preparatory to photographing the border and included area as a pre- 15 liminary to reproduction.

EDWARD A. SCHUCH. JOSEPH F. MASINO.

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