364 Penfield — Use of the Stereographic Projection for 



Some Advantages of the Stereographic Projection over other 

 methods of map making now in general use. — The writer 

 wishes it distinctly understood that he lays no claim to being 

 an expert on the subject of map projection. It was wholly a 

 matter of accident that in the study of crystallography his 

 attention was called to the desirability of making the stereo- 

 graphic projection more generally useful, and its application 

 to map projection followed as a natural sequence. During the 

 rather short period which has been devoted to the special 

 study of maps, pains have been taken to gain as much informa- 

 tion as possible concerning modern methods of map making, 

 and, what is at times called, map reading. This has been 

 derived from conversations with scholars and teachers, and 

 from examination of geographies and text books on map draw- 

 ing. Some generalizations, therefore, though coming from 

 one who is neither a geographer nor a chartographer, may not 

 be out of place. 



From an educational standpoint it seems as though decided 

 advantages would follow from the adoption of such an excel- 

 lent method of map making as the stereographic projection. 

 From a study of figures 1, 2 and 16, pages 247, 248 and 269, or 

 still better, of actual models, any scholar possessing the faculty 

 of comprehending geometrical relations would see and under- 

 stand what 'projection means, and tvould have an idea of the 

 principle upon which stereographic maps are based. As it is 

 now, many methods of making maps are in use, and there are 

 few scholars, or teachers even, who have definite and correct 

 ideas of how maps are constructed. The writer's limited 

 experience is fully in accord with the following statement by 

 an eminent geographer, J. W. Redway :* ' ; Of the principal 

 (map) projections perhaps one in twenty is familiar with the 

 name Mercator, while in audiences aggregating more than one 

 hundred thousand teachers the writer has found scarcely one 

 hundred who are familiar with the others." Map drawing, if 

 practiced at all, seems generally to be done in the lower grades 

 of the secondary schools in the United States, and there is 

 something wrong about the manner of presenting the subject 

 if teachers know little or nothing of the methods of plotting 

 parallels and meridians, the most essential part of map drawing. 

 On the other hand, let it be assumed that one has made a most 

 careful study of the methods of map projection : In excep- 

 tional cases it may become necessary to draw a map, when a 

 knowledge of how certain projections are made would be most 

 useful. In the majority of cases, however, even a very good 

 knowledge of the subject may be almost valueless, because the 

 makers of maps seldom state the method of projection employed 



* The New Basis of Geography, The Macinillan Co., 1901, page 161. 



