4 70 
SYNOPTICAL CHARTS. 
%v. 
tance of the eye, the impresion on the mind produced by the study of 
the printed page. 
No other tactical chart has as yet been published by the Synoptical 
Chart Company, but it is in the realm of history that their system 
particularly applies. 
THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 1860-65.* 
The first of their charts which I ever saw was the one illustrative 
of the American Civil War; and it was my conviction of the entire 
admirableness of the method exhibited in this chart, as well as an 
equally strong conviction of the educational power wilfully discarded 
in this country, by our hesitating use of graphic methods, that induced 
me to work at the tactical chart you have just seen, and also at a 
graphic representation of a combined history of fortification and ar¬ 
tillery, which I hope to show you presently. 
I remember, some seventeen or eighteen years ago, attending a 
meeting of the British Association at Southampton, to hear an address 
delivered by Sir William Thompson—now Lord Kelvin—on the sub¬ 
ject of the tides. On the platform was a large and decidedly compli¬ 
cated piece of machinery, some five feet in height. It consisted 
chiefly of a large number of cog-wheels, which actuated a series of 
automatic recorders. 
In introducing the lecturer, the President said that by means of this 
machine, Sir William Thompson was able to predict the state of the 
tide at any port in the United Kingdom at any time of the day or night 
for the next 100 years. 
That sounded a large order, but those who have ever heard Lord 
Kelvin lecture will not be surprised to hear that before he sat down 
he had impressed the entire audience with a sense of the scientific 
nature and reality of the predictions of his machine. I have not quite 
such a sweeping assertion to make with reference to this chart, but I 
will say this, that with this chart before you, you will be able in five 
minutes to fix the location of any large body of men—Federal or Con- 
* Owing to the original chart used at the Lecture being too great to reproduce, a section of it dealing with 
the operations in Virginia in 1852 is published as a specimen, for which our thanks are due to the Com¬ 
parative Synoptical Chart Company, 5 , Copthall Buildings, E.C.—Secretary R.A.I, 
