Map Making (1961)

Various brief shots illustrating the changing countryside; a tree being felled; workman at a table looking at plans while another holds a pneumatic drill beside a 'Road Works Ahead' sign; a man on a machine chucking up earth; a large pipe being lowered into the ground; a new (and nearly empty) motorway (this is from CP 325 - 300 M.P.H. Road).



Various shots of Bert Smith using a tellurometer; a machine with a kind of aerial dish on the front that measures distances through sound waves for ordnance survey maps; another man sits at the 'speaker' of the machine and makes notes. Three men are seen at adding machines in an Ordnance Survey office; a girl feeds some cards into an IBM computerised sorting machine.



Various shots of Dennis Braten using a stereo plotting machine which traces a 6 inch scale map from an aerial photographic plate. On a field by a parked Land Rover, Norman Facey uses a sight rule on a 6 inch detail survey and draws across the map.



In another Ordnance Survey office, some men are seen working on very detailed maps; panning C/U of one of the maps. M/Ss and C/Us as a draughtsman tracing hill outlines on wax-coated glass; very exacting work!



M/S as two men fix a map into position on a wall; an elderly man, George Dart, operates a huge camera to take a copy of the map. From the negatives, zinc printing plates are etched out; M/S of a printing plate being loaded into a printer. Comical M/S of Joe Hollingsworth mixing some red ink on a table; it looks like ketchup! M/Ss of the maps being printed. M/S of a couple, Janet and Alan Franks in a village looking at a Ordnance Survey map then walking off.



Note: The two Ordnance Survey centres seen are at Southampton, Hampshire and Chessington, Surrey. On file are notes on the workers and processes seen plus an article from 'The Motor' about map making.
FILM ID:145.04

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