| SOLSTICE: An Electronic Journal of Geography and Mathematics. (Major articles are refereed; full electronic archives available). Persistent URL: http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/58219 |
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Down the Mail Tubes: Yesterday, Today, and...Tomorrow?
Sandra Lach Arlinghaus
Adjunct Professor of Mathematical Geography and Population-Environment Dynamics
School of Natural Resources and Environment
The University of Michigan
| Download
the linked kmz file and load it into
Google Earth to drive around the model as you read this article. |
A wealth of material is available for display in Google Earth. Not long ago, there were few historical maps that had been digitized and used as geo-referenced overlays on the 3D GoogleGlobe. Today, there are numerous maps ready for use. They hint at the excitement of what is to come...tomorrow.
The figures below serve as a photo essay of "then and now" as they recast four maps from a 1986 paper-and-print monograph into the current 3D world (Arlinghaus, 1986). To get the full effect, and to perhaps discover more map "finds" online, the reader should download the linked .kmz file above and drive around the virtual world while looking at historical maps in the context of today's and, in some cases, yesterday's world. 3D buildings enhance visualization as do "street views" from cameras. Visit the old and the new simultaneously. Let historical juxtapositions pique creative research imagination as a guide to coupling the new with the old, enlivening and enlightening as we proceed on a journey toward the future.
BERLIN ROHRPOST
1870
 Figure 1a. Sole spatial
representation of 1870 Rohrpost in 1986 work.
|
 Figure 1b. Supplementation of Figure 1a. See the locations of the places set against a map of the period. See the network of 1870 cast in today's light. Often there is debate about whether "topological" networks or networks that follow actual streets are more useful. With this sort of display it is easy to have both and gain the advantage that each has to offer. |
1901
 Figure
2a. From 1986 work.
|
 Figure 2b. Supplementation of Figure 2a. |
PARIS RESEAU PNEUMATIQUE
1870
 |
 Figure 3b. Supplementation of Figure 3a. |
1907
 Figure 4a. From
1986 work.
|
 Figure 4b. Supplementation of Figure 4a. |
In her pre-publication review of the 1986 manuscript, Sylvia L. Thrupp (Alice Freeman Palmer Professor Emerita of History, The University of Michigan) noted: "The most original part of the whole discussion...is the use made of all the historical evidence deployed in showing the limits of variance in the spatial design of the tubal networks. History is thus linked to geographical theory and both, to urban ecology." Perhaps Sylvia would have enjoyed seeing how these 'limits of variance' have advanced in the quest to forge further linkage in the world of tomorrow!
REFERENCES
- Arlinghaus,
Sandra L.
- On
Geographical Network Location Theory. Ph.D. Dissertation.
Department of Geography. The University of Michigan.
1977. (Ph.D. Advisor, Waldo R. Tobler; Dissertation
Co-chairs: Waldo R. Tobler and John D. Nystuen).
- Down the Mail Tubes: the Pressured Postal Era, 1853-1984. Ann Arbor: Institute of Mathematical Geography, 1986. http://www-personal.umich.edu/%7Ecopyrght/image/monog02/fulltext.pdf
- Spatial Synthesis, Volume II, Book 4. Ann Arbor: Institute of Mathematical Geography, 2009.
- Google Earth Community: http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php/Cat/0
- Google 3d Warehouse: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/
- Thrupp, Sylvia L. quotation appears in the
1986 publication of Down the Mail
Tubes linked above.
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Solstice:
An Electronic Journal of Geography and Mathematics,
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Congratulations to all Solstice contributors. |
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734.975.0246
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/handle/2027.42/58219
image@imagenet.org