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Patents and Cartographic Inventions

A New Perspective for Map History

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Mark Monmonier

    1. Department of Geography, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, USA

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  • Is the only map history book focusing on patented inventions
  • Delivers an engaging, well-written account of how diverse inventors, practical-minded or fanciful, proposed clever ways to create or use maps
  • Opens new areas for research on the history of cartography

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Maps and Patents

    • Mark Monmonier
    Pages 1-23

  3. Pinpointing Places

    • Mark Monmonier
    Pages 25-62

  4. Showing the Way

    • Mark Monmonier
    Pages 63-103

  5. Folding, Unfolding

    • Mark Monmonier
    Pages 105-135

  6. World Views

    • Mark Monmonier
    Pages 137-177

  7. Global Affairs

    • Mark Monmonier
    Pages 179-217

  8. Current Events

    • Mark Monmonier
    Pages 219-253

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 255-267
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Keywords

About this book

This book explores the US patent system, which helped practical minded innovators establish intellectual property rights and fulfill the need for achievement that motivates inventors and scholars alike. In this sense, the patent system was a parallel literature: a vetting institution similar to the conventional academic-scientific-technical journal insofar as the patent examiner was both editor and peer reviewer, while the patent attorney was a co-author or ghost writer. In probing evolving notions of novelty, non-obviousness, and cumulative innovation, Mark Monmonier examines rural address guides, folding schemes, world map projections, diverse improvements of the terrestrial globe, mechanical route-following machines that anticipated the GPS navigator, and the early electrical you-are-here mall map, which opened the way for digital cartography and provided fodder for patent trolls, who treat the patent largely as a license to litigate. 



Reviews

“Monmonier’s book provides a much-needed, in-depth, and deeply researched analysis of cartographic patents. Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History is recommended for those interested in understanding how cartographic innovations have developed over the past century and a half.” (John J. Swab, Cartographic Perspectives, Issue 90, 2018) “Cartographic innovators are a curious and quirky set of citizens, each with a unique story to tell. Monmonier has pieced together newspaper stories, census records and journal information to fill out and illuminate these unsung cartographic heroes.”  (Keith Clarke, Professor of Geography, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)

 “Mark Monmonier reveals and organizes, for the first time, a wealth of information about how many ingenious persons in modern America responded to the social and technological challenges and opportunities that everyday map use presented, from how to fold a map to how to conceptualize the world.” (Matthew Edney, Osher Professor in the History of Cartography, University of Southern Maine, USA)

 “This is a major contribution that explores an area in the history of cartography that is not simply ignored by historians of cartography, but basically unknown to them—patents and inventions pertaining to maps and globes. The book is thoroughly researched, and in addition to examining patent applications makes use of genealogical research tools to learn more about the inventors.  Well-written and richly illustrated with original patent drawings, the subjects range from transfer tickets to electric maps.” (Judith Tyner, Professor Emerita of Geography, California State University, Long Beach, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Geography, Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, Syracuse, USA

    Mark Monmonier

About the author

Mark Monmonier is Distinguished Professor of Geography at Syracuse University. For numerous papers on digital cartography and the history of cartography as well as 19 books, including How to Lie with Maps, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Geographical Society’s O. M. Miller Medal, and the German Cartographic Society’s Mercator Medal. 

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