Comments on: Steampunk SatNav? http://www.howwedrive.com/2008/08/20/steampunk-satnav/ Just another WordPress weblog Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:16:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Jonathan Dower http://www.howwedrive.com/2008/08/20/steampunk-satnav/#comment-262 Jonathan Dower Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:16:21 +0000 http://www.howwedrive.com/?p=200#comment-262 Well, the Plus Fours Routefinder (1920) is a draw, although you would be crazy to miss the Automatic Nose Hair (1920), also on display. But the Plus Fours was pre-dated by several other efforts to keep motorists on the straight-and-narrow while navigating a landscape with precious little traffic order and no street signs The Photo-Auto Guide was a series of photographs taken by young Andrew McNally II, scion of Rand McNally’s cofounder, using a camera strapped to his car during his 1907 honeymoon drive from Chicago to Milwaukee. The photographs were published as a book with arrows on each page indicating where to turn. The Jones Live-Map was a dial connected to the odometer on which you could place a disk representing a particular trip, say New York to Waterbury because, I suppose, people wanted to go there then. The disk would turn as the miles passed bringing preprinted locations and instructions for that mileage into view. Needless to say, production was labor intensive and the choice of destinations for both products was limited. Real road maps, followed by MapQuest and GPS, have taken most of the guesswork and, consequently, the fun out of finding your way out to Aunt Selma’s. Except here in Boston where the streets, the signage, and the other motorists seem dedicated to making keeping you challenged …as well as lost. Images of the Photo-Auto Guide and Jones Live-Map can be found here: http://www.drivinglikeass.com/journal/2007/10/3/getting-lost-why-maps-gps-your-brother-in-law-are-no-help.html Well, the Plus Fours Routefinder (1920) is a draw, although you would be crazy to miss the Automatic Nose Hair (1920), also on display. But the Plus Fours was pre-dated by several other efforts to keep motorists on the straight-and-narrow while navigating a landscape with precious little traffic order and no street signs

The Photo-Auto Guide was a series of photographs taken by young Andrew McNally II, scion of Rand McNally’s cofounder, using a camera strapped to his car during his 1907 honeymoon drive from Chicago to Milwaukee. The photographs were published as a book with arrows on each page indicating where to turn.

The Jones Live-Map was a dial connected to the odometer on which you could place a disk representing a particular trip, say New York to Waterbury because, I suppose, people wanted to go there then. The disk would turn as the miles passed bringing preprinted locations and instructions for that mileage into view.

Needless to say, production was labor intensive and the choice of destinations for both products was limited. Real road maps, followed by MapQuest and GPS, have taken most of the guesswork and, consequently, the fun out of finding your way out to Aunt Selma’s. Except here in Boston where the streets, the signage, and the other motorists seem dedicated to making keeping you challenged …as well as lost.

Images of the Photo-Auto Guide and Jones Live-Map can be found here: http://www.drivinglikeass.com/journal/2007/10/3/getting-lost-why-maps-gps-your-brother-in-law-are-no-help.html

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