Map Making 1961

[bothar]

I'm not sure if this has been posted before or if this is the best place for it. Mods feel free to move or remove.
The M1 has not changed too much since the shots here, map making though is now entirely different.

[ravenbluemoon]

Wow, times have changed - surveying in a suit!

I never managed to get the hang of stereoscopes, one of my eyes is markedly weaker than the other, so I could never see a 3D image properly.

Interesting stuff though, thanks for sharing!

[Clearway]

What an interesting film; brought back fond memories for me. These manual techniques were in use at least until the late 1970s. It was very satisfying to produce the finished map, but it could be a bit of struggle to get there. The stereo plotters, usually using aerial photos or field survey, produced an accurate draft from which a high-quality map would be traced. I found a ruling pen could be tricky to use - had to stop every few minutes and clean out the pen and the old ink, replenish and set the blades to the correct line thickness (we are talking thous of an inch here!). The castor-action scribing tool shown was brilliant for roads, railways and contours; there were specially ground scribing bits which produced two thick lines for road casings and some with a thinner cutter in the middle for dual carriageways. But mistakes were awkward to correct on the waxed sheets. The huge process cameras were still in everyday use; they produced perfect, true scale distortion-free images but I hate to think what a new lens would have cost!
The drawing office of 40 I worked in is long gone now, no doubt the maps could easily be done on a suitable mobile phone app!