Chasing the line: Hutton’s contribution to the invention of contours

ABSTRACT

This article describes one aspect of the history, invention and use of contour lines. We present a case that Charles Hutton – working for the Greenwich Royal Observatory – might have created one of the first accurate and useful contour maps, based on a survey of Schiehallion in Perthshire, Scotland. Hutton’s description of this map and his calculations (used to determine the density of the Earth) were published by the Royal Society in 1778. The map is missing; however, this paper provides all the information, based on the surveyors’ measurements, to create a fairly accurate contour map of Schiehallion. Our collaboration, between mathematician and artist, led to a visual reinterpretation of the data based on the original calculations in Hutton’s paper, and his other maps. In this article, we document our re-creation of the map of Schiehallion and subsequent and corresponding three-dimensional contour models of the mountain.

KEYWORDS:

• Cartography
• Charles Hutton
• contour lines
• isobaths
• Schiehallion

Acknowledgements

The Great Lines art project, from which this article stems, received financial support from Arts Council England and VARC (Visual Arts in Rural Communities). The research was aided by the following organisations: The National Library of Scotland Map Library; The Lit. & Phil., Newcastle; The British Library; The Royal Society Archives, London; the Royal Greenwich Observatory archives (held by Cambridge University Library); Rotterdam City Archives; Amsterdam University; Leiden University; The Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland, Leiden; and The John Muir Trust, all of which were very generous with their support. We would also like to thank the reviewers and editors for their engagement and critical insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

K. Rann http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3098-1551

R. S. Johnson http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7744-2307