OT: BBC prog on Ordnance Survey

[newshound]

Full of interesting detail, film, and images.

[Tim+]

Stupid program. Made me order two old maps off eBay. ;-)

Tim

[NY]

If you need to see any more maps, the National Library of Scotland has all the 1", 1:25000 and 6" maps of England, as well as the 1:2500 (25") maps of south/midland England (as far north as Birmingham and Peterborough but excluding Leicester):

They have individual sheets of various ages, and they have a single seamless map of the whole country which seems to be made up of the older maps.

I'm hoping that one day they'll get the 25" maps of northern England to see areas where I grew up and where I live now.

[Alan J. Wylie]

Thanks very much for that, I hardly watch any TV. Some mention of computers, but none (at quick skim through) of the automatic digitising system I helped install in the early 80's.

Here's something I posted over at The Register a few days ago.

I remember the days

When I installed a very early computerised digitising system at the Ordnance Survey in Southampton. My first job was at Laser-Scan (founded by Otto Frisch[1]). It must have been about 1980 or 1981. There was a "Fastrak" laser scanner attached to a VAX 11-780.

Here's a scan[2] of a photo of the later design of the operator's console. A map was photographed onto a A6 negative, which was then scanned, a square mm at a time, by a red laser, and straight lines were followed automatically. The operator could select which line to follow at junctions using a tracker ball and 16 buttons (which could also be pressed as chords!). When a line had been digitised, a blue laser wrote on a piece of photochromic film sandwiched against the negative, removing it from the display.

I can remember scanning 1:1250 maps (NZ2741NW, Prebend's Bend, Durham, which was our standard demo), contour lines, and a project for the Forestry Commission where we digitised the boundaries of all the woodland in the UK (the green overlay from 1:50000 sheets, all 204 of them).

There's more history at my ex-colleague Paul's page[3].

[1] [2] [3]

[Mike Barnes]

I listened to that some time ago but didn't get anything from it because I was distracted by the presenter consistently talking about something called the "Ordinance Survey".

When they can't get the name of the organisation right, how can one trust any of it?

[ARW]

Much better than these new fangled maps that use km and cm:-)

[newshound]

I thought they were saying Ordonance. Pissed me off too, a bit, but the old film and the tech stuff was so interesting.

[newshound]

I have a mate who still does carpentry in Imperial. He always stocks up on steel tapes when he is in the USA because they have inches on both edges.

[ARW]

Christ on a bike. Have you seen the saddo at 31 minutes?

That one needs a map to help him find a vagina.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Well its better than a 'DomayneNayme Websight', whatever that is.

Or being sold paint by a gay zebra.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Mate, when you get to my age, you need a map and a bank.

[PeterC]

The map of the eclipse had on the cover the scale: 10 miles to 1" - that's an awfully large scale, especially as it was describe as small scale.

Still worth watching for a second time, having seen it first time out, although it's on again this week. Good of the BBC to give us extra value for our money.

[NY]

I can understand (though maybe not forgive) that error: "ordnance" is not an easy word to say (the two consonants d and n) and the brain/mouth wants to insert a vowel (any vowel!) between them to make the word easier to say.

But they should have made a special effort and told Lesley Manville (the narrator) to take care not to slip in a vowel by accident.

[Vir Campestris]

More hours wasted ;)

Andy

[Roger Mills]

It's all fascinating stuff! Much of it with the ability to overlay old maps with recent satellite images, and fade between the two.

I, too, spent several hours looking at various places of interest. I wouldn't say they were *wasted*!

[DJC]

I found it very useful for checking out the environs of various houses I have been looking to buy.

[Roger Mills]

I don't quite understand that. Is there some reason why an historic map is better than a current one for this purpose?

[fred]

Ordnance Survey Ireland have something similar at

if any of you have Irish roots

[NY]

It's free, whereas modern maps of corresponding scale (eg 25 in/mile) require you to pay to view them. The large-scale online OS map referred to earlier int he thread looks to provide most of the information that you get on 25" maps, though buildings are not named/numbered and there isn't quite as much detail.

I just like looking at old maps and comparing them with modern maps/aerial photos to see what's changed and what's been there for donkeys' years. The street where I lived when I was little has been there as a track from the very earliest map on the NLS site, even though all the parallel streets of houses of similar age were "just green fields". Our road existed as a track long before the houses (1920s on one side and 1940s/50s on the other side) were built.

[whisky-dave]

Well you might find that your new modern house has been built say an old grave site, or on a waste dump.

What I've been looking for is to find Strand Road Bow E3 where my mum used to live road doesn't exist now, be intresting to see what is there now.