Manure
. See Fertilizer Maoris. See New Zealand Map, a picture or chart of a part of the earth's surface. The beginning of maps may be guessed at from the origin of the name. It is a Carthaginian word, meaning a napkin or signal cloth. It is but natural that a commercial people should be the first to feel the need of maps. It has been noticed that wandering tribes have much more ability in sketching maps than settled people. The Eskimos have furnished Arctic explorers with numerous helpful diagrams. The Sioux Indian is able to sketch a map in the sand with his toe, accurate as to direction and relative distance. The earliest mention of maps is found in the writings of the Egyptians. Wooden tablets, on which seas and highways were indicated, are mentioned as dating from the time of Rameses II about 1333 B. C. Other maps referred to are believed to have existed from the fact that maps and plans have been found among the old papyrus rolls. One papyrus sheet preserved in the museum of Turin has been identified as a map of a mining district in Nubia far to the south of Egypt. Others are recognized as the routes of conquering armies, etc. Picture maps were discovered by Layard in his excavations at Nineveh and Babylon.
As it is natural for an observer to suppose that he is at the center of the world, the earliest maps were circular. An ac quaintance with the shores of the Mediterranean led the Greek geographers to construct oval maps to take that sea all in. Democritus, Eratosthenes, Strabo, Hipparchus, and Ptolemy are names that appear in the history of Grecian map-making. They developed the idea of latitude and longitude as a guide. The Romans were famous for military roads. During the reign of Augustus a survey was made of the entire empire, showing the military roads in considerable detail. Maps were hung up on the walls of public buildings. Commanders were provided with maps for their guidance. The map-makers of the Middle Ages drew too largely on their imagination to have made valuable contributions. The Arabians, who, it should be remembered, extended their conquests from Spain to farther India, were map-makers of no mean order.
Modern map-making dates from the revival of learning which preceded the discovery of America. It began where Ptolemy left off. A special article may be consulted on MERCATOR. An edition of Ptolemy's geography, translated from the Greek into Latin, appeared at Rome in 1478. It was accompanied by a map of the world. ten maps of Europe, four of Africa, and twelve of Asia. The earliest printed map known is a map of Germany and western Europe. It was printed from a wooden block in 1460, and is preserved in the national library at Paris.
The making of modern maps is a business of great magnitude. Houses of repute retain a staff of scholars whose business it is to keep the maps up to date. The preparation of a new map is a work requiring no little skill and patience. A copper plate is coated with silver nitrate to prevent the adherence of wax. A wax, composed chiefly of white beeswax, pitch, and a trace of zinc, is allowed to flow evenly over the surface of the copper to the thickness of one-twentieth of an inch. A photograph of a blue print or drawing of the proposed map is taken by a special process on the surface of this wax as a guide to the engraver. Lines of longitude and latitude, as well as wavy coast lines, are produced by a machine constructed for the purpose. Other lines are cut in the wax by hand with fine engraving tools. The names are stamped in the wax by hand with type set up in a flexible chase that permits the letters to be curved in either direction. When the wax is ready, it is sent to the electrotyping room, where a copper plate is secured, having projections wherever the wax has indentations. This copper plate is strengthened by a back of soft metal. It is the plate from which the map is actually printed. The preparation of a plate for a full page map of the size of the pages in this volume costs from $50 to $100. In case a map in several colors is desired, a plate must be prepared for each color, except that two colors may be made to produce a third color where they overlap.