4 ms·

Map Making (1961) [video]

48 points by geospeck 5y ago

rexreed 5y ago
I do like these old style of videos. Straight and to the point, no influencer posing or ad breaks, and cheery music. I wonder why this style went out of fashion? It does seem old fashioned now, but I wouldn't mind this making a resurgence.
- subpixel 5y ago
  Not only are old British public service films fun to watch, without them there would be no Monty Python.
  - rexreed 5y ago
    That is indeed how I learned about the Ministry of Silly Walks.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Propagandistic as hell to boot. They're light, and convey very little actual information, most of that incidentally.
  - rexreed 5y ago
    In this case, I actually learned quite a bit about how map making was done in the early 1960s and the technology and processes involved. I learned more in a shorter time than many YouTube videos of today. And todays' YouTube videos suffer from self-promotion and more overt advertising than the more subtle propaganda of these old videos.
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      There's always a hazard in comparing a specific genre or studio's production to an aggregate average. Sturgeon's law is tremendously optimistic: far more than 90% of everything is crap. British Pathe, especially during and after WWII, was unabashadly propagandistic. It produced short newsreels for popular audiences to view before the main feature in theatres. Themes were pro-British, pro-Empire, and pro-Industry. Technical content was minimal. At its best, YouTube offers markedly better. One example off the top of my head is the Engineer Guy channel, with numerous phenomenally good, non-self-promotional videos. His on the RMS Titanic, the British Airship R.101, on the design (and manufacture) of the aluminium can, and his re-enactment of Michael Faraday's "Natural History of the Candle" (proving that the Brits can actually create high-quality educational content) are all excellent, and I've watched all of them. Bill Hammack has his own biases, occasional blind spots, and does occasionally promote (he wrote a book on R.101, as he'll happily tell you, and does). But he produces excellent work, first and foremost.
mikewarot 5y ago
It's amazing to see the level of specialization of labor so explicitly displayed. To think that so much of that effort is now automated, and all those specialties are redundant makes a deep impression on the soul.
greenie_beans 5y ago
that's cool. and here i am making a map with react-leaflet
skywal_l 5y ago
We should bring back lab coats and mustaches. So dignified.
Cerium 5y ago
I'm just captivated by that clip of the operator working the stereo tracer. That is the height of etch-a-sketch art, just perfection coming out of those knobs.
AreYouSirius 5y ago
Zinc plates - those always makes me think about ... bitcoin ! XD https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090180 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090180
dredmorbius 5y ago
For greater technical detail of mapmaking at about the same time, though of a somewhat different subject, there's Richard Furno's "The Race to Map the Moon", in two parts, covering the 1963--1969 effort to fully map the Earth's natural satellite, half of it with imagery only just obtained for the first time in the years and months immediately preceding publication. http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1481 http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1481 http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1588 http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1588 And the result, or at least an archived copy, as NatGeo's moon has gone 404: https://web.archive.org/web/20061125134203/http://www.ngmapcollection.com/product.aspx?cid=1562&pid=15599 https://web.archive.org/web/20061125134203/http://www.ngmapc... For an earlier map (near-side only), see: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/astrogeology-science-center/science/1961-usgs-astrogeologys-first-published-map?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects https://www.usgs.gov/centers/astrogeology-science-center/sci...
dirtyid 5y ago
A now deleted youtube channel with archival US government documentaries had a great series by US geological survey department on all aspects of map making / cartography that I've been trying to rediscover for years.

48 points by geospeck 5y ago

I do like these old style of videos. Straight and to the point, no influencer posing or ad breaks, and cheery music. I wonder why this style went out of fashion? It does seem old fashioned now, but I wouldn't mind this making a resurgence.

subpixel 5y ago
Not only are old British public service films fun to watch, without them there would be no Monty Python.
- rexreed 5y ago
  That is indeed how I learned about the Ministry of Silly Walks.
dredmorbius 5y ago
Propagandistic as hell to boot. They're light, and convey very little actual information, most of that incidentally.
- rexreed 5y ago
  In this case, I actually learned quite a bit about how map making was done in the early 1960s and the technology and processes involved. I learned more in a shorter time than many YouTube videos of today. And todays' YouTube videos suffer from self-promotion and more overt advertising than the more subtle propaganda of these old videos.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    There's always a hazard in comparing a specific genre or studio's production to an aggregate average. Sturgeon's law is tremendously optimistic: far more than 90% of everything is crap. British Pathe, especially during and after WWII, was unabashadly propagandistic. It produced short newsreels for popular audiences to view before the main feature in theatres. Themes were pro-British, pro-Empire, and pro-Industry. Technical content was minimal. At its best, YouTube offers markedly better. One example off the top of my head is the Engineer Guy channel, with numerous phenomenally good, non-self-promotional videos. His on the RMS Titanic, the British Airship R.101, on the design (and manufacture) of the aluminium can, and his re-enactment of Michael Faraday's "Natural History of the Candle" (proving that the Brits can actually create high-quality educational content) are all excellent, and I've watched all of them. Bill Hammack has his own biases, occasional blind spots, and does occasionally promote (he wrote a book on R.101, as he'll happily tell you, and does). But he produces excellent work, first and foremost.

mikewarot 5y ago

It's amazing to see the level of specialization of labor so explicitly displayed. To think that so much of that effort is now automated, and all those specialties are redundant makes a deep impression on the soul.

greenie_beans 5y ago

that's cool. and here i am making a map with react-leaflet

skywal_l 5y ago

We should bring back lab coats and mustaches. So dignified.

Cerium 5y ago

I'm just captivated by that clip of the operator working the stereo tracer. That is the height of etch-a-sketch art, just perfection coming out of those knobs.

AreYouSirius 5y ago

Zinc plates - those always makes me think about ... bitcoin ! XD https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090180 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090180

dredmorbius 5y ago

For greater technical detail of mapmaking at about the same time, though of a somewhat different subject, there's Richard Furno's "The Race to Map the Moon", in two parts, covering the 1963--1969 effort to fully map the Earth's natural satellite, half of it with imagery only just obtained for the first time in the years and months immediately preceding publication. http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1481 http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1481 http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1588 http://kelsocartography.com/blog/?p=1588 And the result, or at least an archived copy, as NatGeo's moon has gone 404: https://web.archive.org/web/20061125134203/http://www.ngmapcollection.com/product.aspx?cid=1562&pid=15599 https://web.archive.org/web/20061125134203/http://www.ngmapc... For an earlier map (near-side only), see: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/astrogeology-science-center/science/1961-usgs-astrogeologys-first-published-map?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects https://www.usgs.gov/centers/astrogeology-science-center/sci...

dirtyid 5y ago

A now deleted youtube channel with archival US government documentaries had a great series by US geological survey department on all aspects of map making / cartography that I've been trying to rediscover for years.