136
J. T. COOPER
the Swindon Book Co. in Kowloon. There was a steady public demand for the maps and the more popular sheets were frequently out of stock.
In 1965 the Directorate of Overseas Surveys agreed to produce a new series of topographic maps at 1/25,000 scale for the Hong Kong Government, to be plotted from the high-level photography taken in December 1964. The specification included contours at 50 ft. vertical interval instead of the 10 metre contours shown on the old military series. (It may be considered that this was a retrograde step in view of the possible adoption in Hong Kong of the metric system of measurement in the future. It must be remembered, however, that the specification of the new maps was agreed in 1965 when the possible adoption of the metric system had not been raised in Hong Kong and was uncertain in Great Britain). There were advantages in having contours and spot heights in feet rather than metres, since all heights above sea-level used in the Colony, as well as the contours on all larger scale plans, are in feet. The new maps are based on the Cassini rectangular grid used for all plans produced by the Hong Kong Government. The UTM grid is printed in black on the face of the new maps, while the Colony grid (in blue) and the geographical latitudes and longitudes (in black) are shown around the margins.
It was decided that plotting of the new maps would be on the "dual-scale" system already used by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys to map other parts of the Commonwealth. This means that the actual plotting is at a larger scale than that of the final map. In this case the plotting is at 1/15,000 scale and an interim series of sheets is produced at 1/10,000 scale.* At this scale 62 sheets will cover the Colony. They are printed in five basic colours (black, grey, brown, blue and red), but by using half tones as well as full tones the range of colours is increased. Each standard sheet is at double-demy size, the map face being 25″ × 21¾″. In addition to the usual footnotes a glossary of romanised Chinese phrases describing topographic features is added. Several sheets are of larger than standard size to accommodate areas or islands outside the normal sheet edges. On each sheet an index diagram in the footnotes shows the relative position of the 1/2400 scale sheets covering the area.
* See Plate 13 for a specimen extract in black and white.
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136
J. T. COOPER
the Swindon Book Co. in Kowloon. There was a steady public demand for the maps and the more popular sheets were frequently out of stock.
In 1965 the Directorate of Overseas Surveys agreed to produce a new series of topographic maps at 1/25,000 scale for the Hong Kong Government, to be plotted from the high-level photography taken in December 1964. The specification included contours at 50 ft. vertical interval instead of the 10 metre contours shown on the old military series. (It may be considered that this was a retrograde step in view of the possible adoption in Hong Kong of the metric system of measurement in the future. It must be re- membered, however, that the specification of the new maps was agreed in 1965 when the possible adoption of the metric system had not been raised in Hong Kong and was uncertain in Great Britain). There were advantages in having contours and spot heights in feet rather than metres, since all heights above sea-level used in the Colony, as well as the contours on all larger scale plans, are in feet. The new maps are based on the Cassini rectan- gular grid used for all plans produced by the Hong Kong Govern- ment. The UTM grid is printed in black on the face of the new maps, while the Colony grid (in blue) and the geographical latitudes and longitudes (in black) are shown around the margins.
It was decided that plotting of the new maps would be on the "dual-scale" system already used by the Directorate of Overseas Surveys to map other parts of the Commonwealth. This means that the actual plotting is at a larger scale than that of the final map. In this case the plotting is at 1/15,000 scale and an interim series of sheets is produced at 1/10,000 scale.* At this scale 62 sheets will cover the Colony. They are printed in five basic colours (black, grey, brown, blue and red), but by using half tones as well as full tones the range of colours is increased. Each standard sheet is at double-demy size, the map face being 25′′ ×214′′. In addition to the usual footnotes a glossary of romanised Chinese phrases describing topographic features is added. Several sheets are of larger than standard size to accom- modate areas or islands outside the normal sheet edges. On each sheet an index diagram in the footnotes shows the relative position of the 1/2400 scale sheets covering the area.
* See Plate 13 for a specimen extract in black and white.
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