Hello,
For those interested in a sewage map of London please see
http://www.sewerhistory.org/images/bm/bmm3/1930_bmm315.jpg
The two main map making conventions that transform this kind of map into
Beck's underground map are:
1) Convert lines to 90 or 45 degrees
2) Locate items of interest approx equidistant
The lack of good sewage maps online of this era in London suggests the
connection with the underground may be an urban myth. There is a more
obvious connection visually with engineering drawings of drainage systems in
which major items are drawn topologically correct, arranged in an
approximately sensible relationship and the pipe lengths between them are
shortened to suit the drawing.
In contrast to the topological map, the cartogram appears to be potentially
useful in representing information well, See for example
www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/publications/2006/dorling_new_
<http://www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/publications/2006/dorling_new_maps.pdf>
maps.pdf
Seems a bit difficult to do easy comparisons of different items using the
cartogram. Anyone else feel the same?
Sewage technology has had a long and hidden history of input into design
across a wide variety of design fields. For example, you can guess that
there was considerable user (lead user!) input and collaborative design of
this 'flusher's' uniform and equipment
http://www.sewerhistory.org/images/cm/cmjs/1950_cmjs01.jpg
Best wishes,
Terry
|