AWARDS OF PREMIUMS. 59 



transferring from steel and copper engravings to stone. By this 

 important discovery the minutest shades are transferred without 

 injury to the original ; hence the plate is preserved in good order 

 for an indefinite period. Electrotyping has also been applied to 

 map making, by which process the lettering and lines are raised 

 and printed from in the same manner as book type. In litho- 

 graphy the surface is level ; in steel and copper plate the engrav- 

 ing is cut into the metal. 



If any maps were engraved and published in the United States 

 previous to the commencemerit of the present century, history 

 has left no record of the fact. In the early part of the centur}'- 

 local majDS were published in the larger cities, but at this early 

 date there were no map publishers, so called. xMitchell and 

 Tanner, of Philadelphia, appear to have been our pioneer pub- 

 lishers ; the first well known for his maps of the world and o^ 

 the United States ; the latter for his Universal Atlas. 



The art of Map-making is well described in the Neio American 

 Annual, published by P>. K. Maltby, of Cleveland, Oliio, and 

 we have been permitted to make the following extract : 



" The process by which a finished and elegant map, ready for 

 a place in an elaborate and costly atlas, or by the aid of appro- 

 priate mountings, to be suspended — a geographical panorama 

 upon the wall — is not only interesting in itself, but may be, in 

 many respects, quite new to some of our readers. 



The time, labor and care necessary to compile and execute a 

 new map, at all approaching ^.orrectness, can only be appreciated 

 by those who have attempted the task. Some who may read 

 this, perhaps know something of it from merely attempting to 

 copy some small one in their school atlas. As trifling as this 

 undertaking would be in comparison with producing a new one, 

 they may have deemed the job almost endless, and as they 

 worked on, hour after hour upon it, have been thankful that 

 they could choose, as an avocation for life, some employment 

 that would not require such a wearying application as this would 

 do, if continued day after day, and year after year. Yet this, it 

 must be remembered, is only copying, and demands merely care 

 and patience to imitate correctly. But in compiling a new map 



