Australian Device Makes Maps Of the Ground It Covers (Jul, 1946)

This is how they make Google Maps.

Australian Device Makes Maps Of the Ground It Covers

The odd apparatus at left is the Australian “co-graph,” which automatically maps the ground over which it moves. Named for its inventor, Lt. Col. H. J. F. Coe, the machine can be operated by a pedestrian or set up in a trailer (PSM, Dec. ’44, p. 134). The co-graph obtains direction by being oriented with a sensitive compass; gets distance from a calibrated ground wheel. Drive from the wheel turns a paper-carrying roller under a fixed pencil, and thus a course is plotted to scale. The co-graph’s upper part —sighting tube, compass, mirror, and map-making equipment—weighs only 10 pounds and is strapped to the user’s body.