A Paper Landscape

For many years after its foundation in 1791, the Ordnance Survey was mainly concerned with making small-scale military maps of England. In 1824, it was directed to map the whole of Ireland as quickly as possible on the large scale of six inches to the mile. After many delays and some mistakes, economy and accuracy were brought to this new task by applying the division of labour in a complex succession of cartographic operations, outdoor and indoor, each of which was as far as possible checked by one or more of the others. A similar system was later adopted by the Survey's British branch. The above-mentioned topics are fully described in this study.