Martin Hotine : His links to Australian Mapping
Brigadier Martin Hotine, CMG, CBE (1898-1968).
Compiled by Paul Wise, September 2021
Introduction
In researching aspects of Australian national mapping and its history, the name Martin Hotine occurs in several instances. While Hotine had no role in the actual mapping of Australia it is his techniques and later status in both war and peace that is recalled in this article.
Brigadier Martin Hotine, CMG, CBE (17 June 1898-12 November 1968)
Martin Hotine received his early education at the then Southend Technical School, now the Southend High School for Boys. He later read mathematics at Magdalene (pronounced Maudlyn) College, Cambridge. Graduating from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich on 6 June 1917, Hotine was commissioned in the Corps of Royal Engineers.
Following additional training at the School of Military Engineering at Chatham he served with Queen Victoria’s Own Bombay Sappers and Miners in India on the North West Frontier. This was followed by service in Persia and Iraq. Peace saw him ordered back to England in 1922 where he undertook further courses at Magdalene College and advanced studies at Chatham.
Research Officer to the Air Survey Committee
Hotine’s mathematical ability saw him appointed in 1925, as Research Officer, to the Air Survey Committee of the Geographical Section of the General Staff at the War Office. As a captain in the Royal Engineers, he worked with other mathematicians on some of the problems associated with the graphical methods of plotting topographic information from vertical air photography.
A Review in The Geographical Journal (Hinks, 1928), stated that:…It seems to be now accepted by the Air Survey Committee that contouring from the air can be done effectively and economically only by a stereoscopic method - the alternative makeshifts may serve for an odd plate or two, but are not good enough for regular work. Pending the completion of more elaborate apparatus they have made a very interesting experiment in the survey of about 20 square miles of country near Arundel, in Sussex, recently described in No. 3 of their Professional Papers by Lieutenant Hotine, LE., their Research Officer. A machine of the R.A.F. equipped with a Service F.8 or Eagle Camera, working on films 7 inches square; and with a focal length of 10 inches, took the photographs in strips with an overlap of 50 per cent., and as nearly vertical as possible. We can make no attempt to summarize the rather intricate method by which a contoured map was made from this material. It involved a preliminary selection and rough plot of a close auxiliary control; a survey of this control with theodolite, and a considerable number of heights determined with a battery of aneroids; and finally contour-sketching with the Topographical Stereoscope of Barr and Stroud. We understand that the intention was to plot at 4 inches for reproduction at 3 inches to the mile; but the specimen is enlarged and printed on the back of a 6 inch sheet of the Ordnance Survey, which is an over severe test. One may say that the horizontal detail comes out very well, and the contours are there or thereabouts. Open grassy downs will no detail make a stiff subject to begin upon, and it would be unfair to criticise this first attempt minutely. But it is probably fair to say that the enthusiast for air survey will be disturbed to see how much ground work was wanted, and how little could be done without it. We may thus be led to suppose that the future lies with the elaborate stereoplotter, and that stereosurvey from ground stations will provide the framework of conspicuous detail on which the air photographs will be hung.
After receiving training from the Royal Air Force in 1926, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Flight Lieutenant Gerald Packer (1900-1962) returned to Australia with these latest concepts in aerial photography acquisition and application. Packer subsequently became the RAAF’s chief adviser on aerial survey matters including the navigation and flying requirements fundamental to utilising the Arundel Method. When produced in 1936, it was the Sale 1 mile to 1 inch (1: 63 360) scale map sheet that was the first Australian map sheet to be fully compiled from the Arundel Method of aerial photography acquisition and adjustment. Subsequently, the Arundel Method became the basis for Australian national map series compilation.
In July 1927, the Royal Air Force carried out an aerial survey of the Mediterranean islands of Malta and Gozo. Photographs were taken with two experimental types of aerial survey camera, mounted in a Fairey IIID seaplane, specially modified for the task. The strategic position in the central Mediterranean, ensured that Britain maintained a strong military presence in Malta during the 20th century. Reliable and up to date maps were considered essential for the defence of the island and copies of the aerial photographs were subsequently sent to the Geographical Section General Staff to aid in the preparation of new maps of the islands. The ground survey work in Malta and Gozo was carried out by then Lieutenant Martin Hotine,
During the period 1927 to 1931 Hotine produced four papers and a book; Simple Methods of Surveying from Air Photographs, in 1927, Calibration of Surveying Cameras, and Extensions of the "Arundel" Method [of Surveying from Air Photographs] in 1929, and The Fourcade Stereogoniometer in 1931, followed by his book Surveying from Air Photographs that same year. The papers were published as Professional Papers of the Air Survey Committee and printed by His Majesty's Stationery Office, London. (Henry Georges Fourcade (1865-1948) devised an instrument with which the tip, tilt, orientation, etc., of aerial photographs could be obtained without the necessity of having control points except in one pair of overlapping photographs. Thus, in a strip of overlapping aerial photographs only one pair of consecutive photographs needed have the necessary control points to enable the data for all the other overlapping photographs in the series to be obtained. The War Office Air Survey Committee was so impressed with the idea that they let a contract to Barr and Stroud Ltd in October 1927 to construct the Stereogoniometer based on Fourcade’s concept. (Archibald Barr and William Stroud had been associated from as early as 1888 when the two men were professors of, respectively, engineering and physics at the Yorkshire College (now the University of Leeds). Together, after relinquishing their university tenures, they formed Barr and Stroud Ltd in Glasgow in 1913)).
Survey of the 30th Meridian, Africa
In late 1931, Hotine was posted to Tanzania, Africa and given the assignment of establishing a triangulation network along part of the 30th meridian between latitudes 10⁰ south and 4⁰ south; today northern Zambia and eastern Tanzania along the eastern side of Lake Tanganyika. Proposed by Cape of Good Hope astronomer David Gill (1843-1914) in 1879 his arc of meridian at longitude 31° 16′ East was planned to extend from Port Elizabeth in South Africa to Egypt, in the north a distance of some 7 120 kilometres. In 1954, after 75 years, the arc was finally completed. The now Arc of the 30th Meridian had an overall angular length of 64º 01′ 15”. The triangulation network contained 23 baselines and ran through the modern day countries of Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Congo, Burundi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa. With only a handful of non-commissioned officers assisting him, the rest of his workforce being natives, he completed the work in two years. During this work Hotine made important contributions to the procedures for observing geodetic triangulation and to the precise measurement of first order base lines with Invar tapes. Over such base lines of several miles in extent, accuracies of better than one part in a million were required. At that time the only way of achieving these accuracies over such distances was by using Invar (a nickel steel alloy with a minimal reaction to nominal temperature changes) steel measuring tapes. His 1939 paper The General Theory of Tape Suspension on Base Measurement, led to important changes in the handling and in the techniques of measurement using Invar tapes on base lines. Another important result of his experience in Africa was his realization of the survey requirements of underdeveloped countries and of the need for a central agency to carry out the major tasks of geodetic control, aerial photography and basic topographical mapping, which later saw the establishment of the Directorate of Overseas Surveys.
Map of Africa indicating triangulation network established by Hotine.
Retriangulation of Great Britain
On his return to Britain in early 1935 with the rank of Major, Hotine became head of the Trigonometrical and Levelling Division at Ordnance Survey. Around that same time a decision was taken to observe a new primary network in Britain and re-establish the lower order networks. Hotine was thus responsible for the design, planning and implementation of the retriangulation of Great Britain on which Ordnance Survey maps are still based. During the retriangulation Hotine had solid pillars constructed at each trigonometrical point to provide a stable base for the theodolite angle observations. Some 6 500 of these commonly referred to Hotine pillars, were originally established of which around 6 000 still exit today. Overall, the work took 17 years to complete and another 11 years to refine.
World War Two Service
With the outbreak of the Second World War Hotine was posted to General Headquarters, British Expeditionary Force, and was with the British forces as they fought their way back to Dunkirk in France. He was then assigned to Survey operations in East Africa and then later sent to Greece with a small survey team as part of a British Expeditionary Force (Lustre Force) to assist the Greek army. On 28 October 1940, Italy had declared war on Greece. An invading Italian army was soon driven back and Great Britain began sending Greece military aid. Hitler, concerned that British bombers might use bases in Greece to attack oilfields in Romania vital to Germany's war effort, ordered an invasion for the spring of 1941. In February 1941 Greece accepted the offer of a British Expeditionary Force, known as Lustre Force, to resist the coming German onslaught.
Australia’s reaction to the outbreak of World War 2 was to raise an Australian Corps, Australian Infantry Forces, the Second AIF. Part of this force was the 2/1st Corps Field Survey Company of the Royal Australian Engineers. This unit of 153 all ranks comprised field survey, drawing and lithographic sections. The officers were : Major Lawrence FitzGerald, Commanding Officer; Captain Howard Angas (Bill) Johnson, 2nd in Command; Lieutenant Bruce Philip Lambert; Lieutenant Clifford Stanhope (Tim) Tyler; Lieutenant Walter Bernard Relf and Lieutenant Ronald Eric Playford. No.2 Topographical Section included Sapper John Dunstan Lines and No.2 Printing Section included Sapper Byrne Ernest Goodrick. After a training period at Puckapunyal, the unit embarked for the Middle East on 5 February 1941. On 18 March they were in Palestine at Camp Hill 69. On 2 April 1941 the 2/1st Company received orders to prepare to join Lustre Force in Greece. The Deputy Director of Survey of this force, Colonel Martin Hotine, had proposed basing the company's headquarters, along with its drawing and lithographic sections, in the Athens area, whereas the topographical sections would be employed forward on ground revisions of maps in the area manned by 1st Australian Corps. Accordingly, on 5 April 1941, the unit was ordered to return to Egypt, in preparation for a further move across the Mediterranean. Survey units included in the Order of Battle of the Greece Expeditionary (Lustre) Force included :
Survey Directorate to which Colonel Martin Hotine RE had been appointed Deputy Director of Survey.
Mobile Echelon, 512 (Army) Field Survey Company RE (less two sections).
517 (Corps) Field Survey Company RE.
9 Field Survey Depot RE.
2/1 Australian (Corps) Field Survey Company, Australian Infantry Forces.
Leaving Hill 69 on 15 April 1941 the Australians arrived at Amiriya, located 24 kilometres south of Alexandria the next day to find that events in Greece going against the Allies such that a general evacuation of the surviving defenders was being planned. Owing to the Australian and Allied Armies command structure in place in that theatre, the 2/1st Company operated more as an Army company than a Corps company. Much of the work of 2/1st Company was oversighted by the Survey Directorate of the British 9th Army. Thus, the commanding officer of the 2/1st Company, Major Lawrence FitzGerald, reported to British Army Colonel Reginald Llewellyn (Bruno) Brown who was then Director of Survey at General Headquarters in Cairo. When FitzGerald called on Brown in Cairo on 18 April 1941, he was informed that the company's transfer was cancelled and it was to return to Palestine. The Greek campaign was a failure with the British Army's 517 Corps Field Survey Company losing many men and all its equipment during the withdrawal. Several Australian survey personnel who had been sent earlier also lost their lives. The 2/1 unit returned to Palestine and Hotine who had escaped Greece was ordered back to London to the War Office to be Director of Military Survey and Chief of the Geographical Section General Staff until war’s end, with the rank Colonel.
Loper-Hotine Agreement
As Director of Military Survey and Chief of the Geographical Section General Staff, Hotine was responsible through the Military Survey Service for meeting the needs of the Defence services for maps, aeronautical charts and survey data for all their military operations throughout the world. The British by now were being overwhelmed by their wartime mapping needs and had lost part of their mapping plant in the London blitz. The Royal Air Force was also not equipped to provide precision photography. On their entering the war the Americans found they lacked an adequate collection of existing maps. May 1942 saw Hotine in Washington to discuss the mapping situation with Colonel Herbert Bernard Loper, Chief of the Intelligence Branch of the Chief of Engineers, United States Army. The meeting concluded on 12 May 1942 with the Memorandum of Agreement on Mapping and Survey Policy between the War Office, Geographical Section General Staff, and United States Chief of Engineers representing the War Department. The agreement became commonly known as the Loper-Hotine Agreement.
This agreement divided responsibilities for new mapping along geographical lines. The United States accepted responsibility for preparing all new maps for the Western Hemisphere, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the Netherlands Indies, and islands scattered throughout the whole Pacific. With the aid of aerial photography furnished by the United States, Great Britain would supply maps for other areas - northwest Europe, west and northwest Africa, Indochina, Malaya, and Thailand. Except for large scale maps of the United States, each nation agreed to furnish source materials and reference copies of all new maps automatically and to supply copies of existing maps on special request. To coordinate map supply overseas, the Office of the Chief of Engineers would assign representatives to serve with British mapping agencies, while Geographical Section General Staff would likewise maintain liaison with American mapping staffs. The Loper-Hotine Agreement was of great advantage to the United States. The British provided the Americans with copies of all maps and related information then in their possession or which they later acquired. Practically all the maps furnished for initial operations in the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, European, China-Burma-India, and South and Southwest Pacific areas were based upon British sources. But even British sources were far from complete and far from perfect. For full and up to date coverage, the mapping agencies depended upon the American Air Force to furnish aerial photography.
Further it was agreed that the Chief of Engineers, United States Army, would provide Geographical Section General Staff with full details of any fresh military grids which would be laid down in the areas of American responsibility. In the case of grids covering Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc., it was established that the survey authorities in those countries would first be consulted.
The problem of the spelling of place names and the system of grid referencing to be employed was discussed at an International Mapping Conference held at the War Office in March 1943. It was agreed that the problem was so closely related to the map production process that the map producing organisations ought to coordinate the production of gazetteers and glossaries. They would not, however, necessarily undertake the production themselves, but would use any other organisation which was qualified to do the work.
Perhaps the most significant feature of the Loper-Hotine agreement was that it had the flexibility to adapt to the changing challenges of wartime. Ideas that failed were dropped and successful solutions found. The agreement thus proved to be a most useful and significant contribution to the Allied victory.
Directorate of Overseas Surveys
The Directorate of Colonial Surveys was founded in 1946, and renamed the Directorate of Overseas Surveys in 1957, operating until 1983. Hotine, now with rank Brigadier, left the Army in 1946 to set up and become the first Director General of this new organisation. The rationale was that at the end of the Second World War there was a surplus of both surveying and mapping equipment and of people leaving the various mapping units of the British Army; and at the same time a need for maps to aid development in the colonies. By assisting development in the colonies, when these countries became independent it meant there was the basis for a survey organization already established within the civil service, and the Directorate was also available to give further support.
In his role as Director General, Hotine was also Survey Adviser to the Secretary of State to the Colonies. He thus advised on the priority of Colonial projects which might have seen him at loggerheads with various Directors of Colonial Departments. However, with his managerial style he was able to work with his counterparts in the queue of Colonies jostling for mapping support.
Post World War Two, Britain imposed stringent controls on the purchase of foreign currency especially for purchases which were hardly essential to the well-being of the population. Hotine now implemented the simple low-cost method of scaling and positioning of aerial photographs, the Slotted Template Assembly. This required the construction of a large, stable and carefully levelled wooden floor. The wood was painted and an accurate rectangular grid of coordinates was then carefully set out on the surface. Each photograph was represented by a plastic template into which several radial slots had been cut by a specially constructed machine. Using a collection of studs, the overlapping templates could be joined together. The surveyors' identified control points were plotted on the board beforehand and studs pinned down to the board in those positions. This provided overall scale and small local variations could be accommodated by movement along the slots. Movement could be assisted by the judicious use of a rubber hammer so that the templates were all lying flat. Then the floating studs connecting individual photographs were pinned to the board, the assembly lifted and the coordinates of the pins measured. These coordinates were used to provide the precise position and scale of individual photographs during the plotting process. Not everything went to plan. The paint first applied to the surface was deficient in some way and a new eighteen-year-old recruit was horrified to find it coming off complete with the carefully marked grid when he was set to washing it clean one day. The floor was a ‘holy place’ and all staff working on it were required to remove their shoes and wear specially made felt slippers. The wartime use of the Slotted Template is described in this Survey Directorate GHQ, Middle East, 1942 Technical Pamphlet No.13, Instructions for the Use of Slotted Template Equipment, by Major DR Crone, OBE, RE [Colonel Desmond Roe Crone, CIE, OBE, MSc, FRSA (1900-1974); Crone had studied under Hotine in England, but when given responsibility for mapping The North-West Frontier of the British Indian Empire, today the western frontier of Pakistan, he found these methods unsuitable for this largely inaccessible region; he thus developed the Indian Method using horizon oblique photographs for the mapping].
Between 1943-45 the ability of the British radar technology Gee-H system to fix the position of an aircraft specifically to aid the mapping of dangerous or hard to reach places, was investigated. Initial development work was carried out by the War Office when Hotine was Director of Military Survey. Investigations were carried out in cooperation with the British Air Ministry, the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and the Telecommunications Research Establishment. These investigations were supported by Survey Units of the Royal Engineers, Royal Canadian Engineers and the United States Corps of Engineers and others. British Major Cecil Augustus Hart was responsible for the research work related to surveying. In this 1948 Geophysical Discussion, The Use of Radar in Surveying, however, Hotine is less than enthusiastic about the use of radar controlled aerial photography. Nevertheless, the Directorate of Colonial Surveys employed Gee-H in the British Colonies for controlling photogrammetric mapping at the scales of 1: 50 000 and 1: 25 000 in Ghana, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Rhodesia, Nigeria, Gold Coast and Tanganyika.
Later it was considered that mapping at a scale of 1: 50 000 would be the most suitable for developmental planning and would be based on regular sheet lines and to a specification rigorous enough for the final maps to become part of the national map system of the country concerned; though the actual areas were to be covered in the order of priority dictated by that country’s development plans.
From the start very high standards were set in the accuracy and in the beaconing of the country’s triangulation framework so that this would be permanent and adequate for the future control extension for larger scale mapping of particular projects or areas. These higher standards meant a slower output, but they had the advantage that the maps and survey framework were of permanent value, and available for many uses, instead of being project specific. Occasionally, urgent requirements meant the mapping had to be based on little or no control, showing detail only, without contours. This saved the time which would have been spent on the extra ground work required for the data for the plotting of contours; and it was possible to add the contours in subsequent editions when control had been fixed. By the time Hotine retired on 10 October 1963 the Directorate had mapped some two million square miles (the equivalent of mapping some 60% of the Australian mainland).
Hotine Oblique Mercator Projection (also Rectified Skew Orthomorphic)
The formulae for this projection were presented by Martin Hotine in 1946. The Hotine Oblique Mercator (HOM) projection is a cylindrical, conformal map projection. It is similar to the Mercator projection, except that the cylinder is wrapped around the sphere so that it touches the surface along the great circle path chosen for the central line, instead of along the earth's equator. Scale becomes infinite 90 degrees from the central line and is true along a chosen central line, along two straight lines parallel to the central line, or along a great circle at an oblique angle. Hotine projected the ellipsoid conformally onto a sphere of constant total curvature, called the aposhere, before projection onto the plane. Alternative formulae derived by projecting the ellipsoid onto the conformal sphere gave identical results within the practical limits of the use of the formulae.
The HOM projection was used for geographic regions that are centred along lines that are neither meridians nor parallels, but that may be taken as great circle routes passing through the region. Sometimes the shape, general trend and extent of some countries makes it preferable to apply a single zone of the same kind of projection but with its central line aligned with the trend of the territory concerned rather than with a meridian. So, instead of a meridian forming this true scale central line for one of the various forms of Transverse Mercator, or the equator forming the line for the Mercator, a line with a particular azimuth traversing the territory is chosen and the same principles of construction are applied to derive what is now an Oblique Mercator. Such a single zone projection suits areas which have a large extent in one direction but limited extent in the perpendicular direction and whose trend is oblique to the bisecting meridian - such as East and West Malaysia, the Alaskan panhandle and Madagascar. It was also originally applied to Hungary in the 1970s and, at the beginning of the 20th century, by Rosenmund to the mapping of Switzerland.
Indicative use of the Hotine Oblique Mercator projection where, in general, the meridians and parallels are projected as complex curves. Only two meridians, exactly 180° apart, can be projected as straight lines, crossing the poles. Both poles are presented as points inside the projection outline.
United States Coast and Geodetic Survey
After his retirement from the Directorate, in 1965 Hotine accepted an invitation from the then Director of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, Rear Admiral Arnold Karo, to join his staff as a research geodesist. Later he became a member of the research staff in earth sciences of the Environmental Science Services Administration when this organisation was formed and with which he stayed until his return to England in August 1968. While in America he completed a book Mathematical Geodesy, which was published by the US Government Printing Office. In this work Hotine advocated three dimensional geodesy where the vertical and horizontal were treated equally. For his work in the United States he was awarded the Department of Commerce Gold Medal for 1968, given for exceptional services to the United States.
Symposia and Assemblies
Brigadier Hotine was President of the Commonwealth Survey Officers' Conference in 1955, 1959 and 1963. It succeeded the original Conferences of Empire Survey Officers held in 1928, 1931 and 1935. At the 1963 Conference, John Noble Core Rogers, Director of National Mapping 1949-1951, now Australian Commonwealth Surveyor General presented a motion that this Conference of Commonwealth Survey Officers place on record its profound appreciation of the work of Martin Hotine for the distinguished service he has given as President of this Conference and of the previous Conferences of the Commonwealth Survey Officers in Cambridge in 1955 and 1959, and for the stimulation, encouragement, and leadership he has given to surveyors during a long and very distinguished career.
Hotine was also involved in the programs of the International Association of Geodesy. At the assembly in 1957 in Toronto, Hotine presented the papers Metrical Properties of the Earth's Gravitational Field, and Geodetic Coordinate Systems. Two years later at the assembly in 1959 in Venice he presented the paper A Primer of Non-Classical Geodesy.
Hotine was one of the two United Kingdom representatives who visited Australia in March 1959 as members of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Working Group on Cartography. During his time in Australia, Hotine addressed a combined Victorian meeting of Cartographers and Surveyors. It was later reported that his address revealed the Brigadier’s keen insight into the practical problems of mapping. (SCAR was formed after a 1957 meeting of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU) decided that there was need for further international organisation of scientific activity in Antarctica, and that a committee should be set up for this purpose. The ICSU invited the twelve nations (then Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States) actively engaged in Antarctic research to nominate a delegate each to a Special Committee on Antarctic Research. Mapping quickly became a central aspect and around 1959 the Working Group on Cartography was formed which became the Permanent Working Group on Cartography in 1960.)
Awards
In 1947, the Royal Geographical Society awarded Hotine their Founder’s Gold Medal for research work in air survey as well as his cartographic work. In 1955, he received the Photogrammetric Society’s first President’s Medal and in 1964 the Institution of Royal Engineers’ Gold Medal. In addition, he was also honoured with the award of Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) and also with Companionship of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in recognition of his overseas work. In the London Gazette of 14 November 1947, it was announced that Hotine had been awarded the Legion of Merit, Degree of Officer. The Legion of Merit is a decoration of the United States of America and is awarded to foreign military personnel in four grades (degrees) and to US military personnel without distinction of degree.
Location of the Hotine Glacier on the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica, in relation to South America.
Hotine Glacier
The Hotine Glacier (65° 08′S, 63° 52′W) is a glacier some 20 kilometres long which is divided at its mouth by Mount Cloos, flowing west into both Deloncle Bay and Girard Bay on Kiev Peninsula, on the west coast of Graham Land, Antarctica. It was first charted by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Adrien Victor Joseph de Gerlache de Gomery (1866-1934) during 1897–99, and was named by the United Kingdom Antarctic Place Names Committee in 1959 for Brigadier Martin Hotine, Director of Overseas Surveys.
(L-R) Major General Reginald Llewellyn Brown CB, CBE, MA, FRICS, FRGS (1895-1983) and Brigadier Lawrence FitzGerald OBE (1903-1988).
Hotine’s links to Australian Mapping
Proposed Neutral British Mapping Expert
Prime Minister John Curtin (1885-1945) announced on Tuesday 6 March 1945 that there had been full Cabinet approval for the establishment of a coordinated national mapping program overseen by a National Mapping Council. The then Director of (Australian Army) Survey, Colonel Lawrence FitzGerald wrote to his then counterpart Colonel Martin Hotine now Director of Military Survey (in Britain). (Recall that as discussed above, that in 1941 FitzGerald’s survey unit was planned to be attached to Hotine’s unit in Greece, but just before that eventuated a visit to British Army Colonel Brown, Director of Survey at General Headquarters in Cairo, saw that plan halted). In what was termed a Demi-Official (D.O. – the contents of the letter being part official and part personal) letter to Hotine at the War Office, UK dated 15 May 1945, FitzGerald expressed optimism (in the last half dozen paragraphs of his letter at Annexure A, for the Army survey service’s extensive role in any forthcoming Australian national mapping program.
When in 1947 the process began of setting up a National Mapping Section within the Property and Survey Branch of the Department of Interior commenced, as approved by the Public Service Board, FitzGerald saw this as an erosion of his capability. A neutral British national mapping expert was sought to report to the Minister for the Department of the Army on specific terms of reference addressing Royal Australian Survey’s future work program and interaction with civilian survey and mapping agencies.
James George Gillespie, formerly Lieutenant Colonel Gillespie, FitzGerald's deputy during the war and by now a leading figure in civilian survey activity in Victoria, suggested an invitation be extended to one of the highest Survey Authorities in Great Britain, preferably Brigadier [Martin] Hotine CBE, formerly Director of Survey and now Director of Colonial Surveys, or Brigadier [Guy, the father of later Director of National Mapping, 1977-1982, Anthony Gerald Bomford] Bomford of the Indian Survey Service, to visit Australia….
Subsequently the Australian Government officially sought the assistance of Brigadier Martin Hotine for one month following Hotine's attendance at a Conference of British Commonwealth and United States Survey Authorities to be held in New Zealand in November 1950. The request asked Hotine :
"To report to the Minister for the Army on the best programme of work to be undertaken by the Royal Australian Survey Corps for defence purposes, the extent to which the Corps can cooperate with survey authorities, and what reciprocal assistance the civilian survey authorities can render to the Corps".
The Australian authorities desire in particular that investigation should cover the following technical matters :
(a) incorporation of the main army triangulation surveys into a national system;
(b) the implications of the adoption of radar triangulation on the national system;
(c) alignment of activities in the production of national map series at medium and small scale;
(d) advise on the function of joint advisory or executive bodies in the light of experience on the Joint Advisory Survey Board, United Kingdom;
(e) advise on any other matter relevant to coordination of activities or to the potential of the Army Survey Service in peace with due regard to its functions in war.
The United Kingdom authorities agreed, but a change in personnel saw Hotine replaced by Major General and Director General of the United Kingdom Ordnance Survey, Reginald Llewellyn Brown; Brown thus became the neutral British expert.
On the surface, it would seem that Brown with his military background would have favoured the Australian Army in any future program. It was Brown’s own experience, however, with national mapping in Great Britain, that he advised that Australia, like Britain, needed to have a single mapping authority to be responsible for its national mapping activities. This authority like in Britain, the United States and Canada should also be civilian. To this end the nearest comparable Australian department fitting Brown’s requirements was the Department of National Development which ultimately became the responsible authority for topographic surveys and mapping in Australia.
Brown himself clearly explained that the Department of National Development was neither the greatest user of mapping unlike the then Departments of Army and The Interior nor did it have wide supervision of national affairs like the Departments of Prime Minister or Treasury; the greatest user possibly biasing mapping priorities to its own ends, while mapping priorities might be overlooked among the more crucial items of national importance. Brown saw that some middle course was therefore necessary which will assure that the national survey is under the direction of a Minister who has no sectional interest in its programme but yet has an interest in its general progress and efficient working and can, if necessary, hold the balance between conflicting priorities for particular purposes. In Australia the Department of National Development might be appropriate. It would appear to have more of the necessary attributes than others. The choice needs to be made on the general ground of national interest rather than on the particular needs of one Department however large they may be. Thus the decision as to the Department of National Development being the responsible authority for topographic surveys and mapping in Australia, was based on the national interest and not on the Department’s size. Thus in 1954, the Government established the Department of the Interior as the responsible authority. Later on 2 July 1956, after earlier being announced in Parliament that the National Mapping function of the Department of Interior was to be transferred to the Department of National Development, National Mapping was transferred to the Department of National Development and given divisional status.
It must be made clear that the above issues of overall responsibility for mapping did not impinge on the Commonwealth agency’s understanding of their areas of mapping responsibility. From the outset the National Mapping Council had no role in coordinating the programs of the Commonwealth Government’s Defence and Civilian mapping agencies. In broad terms the NMC’s primary coordination role (at inception in 1945) was for the Director of National Mapping to be responsible for the co-ordination of the activities of Commonwealth and State authorities. The NMC was thus being guided by resolutions of the January 1945 meeting of the Commonwealth Survey Committee and State Surveyors General, that recommended the creation of the NMC and the position of Director of National Mapping, specifically : The expression ‘coordination of the mapping activities of Australia’ shall be subject to the recognised policy of the Services to control their respective mapping activities provided that where practicable the standard of all work shall be not less than the minimum requirements of the National Mapping Council. On page 283 of his 1992 book Australia on Paper, Joe Lines discussing the 1: 250 000 scale, R502 series mapping program (mid 1950s-1968) stated : Army, consistent with its defence obligations, took responsibility for mapping the northern portions of the country, which of course included the then relatively unknown areas of much of Cape York Peninsula, Arnhem Land and the Kimberley region in Western Australia…it was appropriate for the Survey Corps to tackle the mapping of these areas as they had the logistic support of the Navy and RAAF on call, without having to experience the inevitable delays in coping with the unforeseen which a civilian department would have been obliged to bear. While not mentioned by Lines, the Woomera area and the balance of the areas around the State capitals also came under the umbrella of defence obligations.
Mapping Scales, Units and Symbology
While the Loper-Hotine Agreement divided and standardised the mapping responsibilities between Britain and America during World War Two, Australia had already instituted its Emergency Mapping Scheme in November 1940. The scheme produced maps and photomaps at Imperial scales ranging from one mile to one inch (1: 63 360) to eight miles to one inch (1: 506 880). All mapping produced under the Loper-Hotine Agreement, however, was at Metric scales.
Following World War Two, 29 countries in North America and Europe formed an intergovernmental military alliance or North Atlantic Alliance. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, or NATO, implements the North Atlantic Treaty that was signed on 4 April 1949. Under NATO, mapping Metric scales, units and symbology were further standardised across all member countries.
In his 1951 report to the Minister, Brown noted that Australia’s use of Imperial map scales was now at odds with the Metric scales agreed and used by the major nations. Brown recommended that before too much more post war mapping was completed by Australia it moved to Metric scales. As he noted changing scale from Imperial 1: 253 440 scale to Metric 1: 250 000 scale was relatively easy.
As Brown’s recommendations were still being considered Australia became a member of SEATO. (The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), regional defence organisation operated from 1955 to 1977. Created by the Southeast Asia Collective Defence Treaty, signed at Manila on 8 September 1954, by the representatives of Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The treaty came into force on 19 February 1955. Pakistan withdrew in 1968, and France suspended financial support in 1975. The organization formally ended on 30 June 1977). Australia’s membership of SEATO required it to comply with the Treaty’s standardisation agreements. Owing to the need for this compliance, specifically in relation to Metric map scales, units and symbology, and Brown’s comments relating to Metric scale, the Royal Australian Survey Corps wanted Australia to comply. Consequently, when the mid 1955 Recommended Plan of Mapping Operations for Australia emerged, the plan included a 1: 250 000 scale national topographic map series, incorporating the requisite Metric standardisation compliance.
The Royal Australian Survey Corps formally adopted metric scales in 1956. In 1957, the Commonwealth followed, officially changing scales from the Imperial 1: 253 440 to the Metric 1: 250 000. Full National Mapping Council member agreement followed in 1959.
Implicit in the mid 1955 Recommended Plan of Mapping Operations was that all future mapping would be based on Hotine’s Arundel Method. The first uniform, medium scale, topographic map coverage of Australia was the R502 series at 1: 250 000 scale. For this uncontoured mapping series the block photographic coverage was supplied by the Royal Australian Air Force. Using Fairchild K17 aerial cameras with a frame format of 23 x 23 centimetres (9 x 9 inches) and nominal 150 millimetre (6 inch) focal length lens, the resultant photographs had a nominal scale of 1: 50 000. The later contoured National Topographic Map Series (NTMS) was based on contracted aerial photography acquired with Wild RC9 aerial cameras with a frame format of 23 x 23 centimetres (9 x 9 inches) and nominal 88 millimetre (3½ inch) focal length lens, the resultant photographs had a nominal scale of 1: 80 000. The RC9 aerial photography reduced the stereoscopic model control needed by some 70% for an equivalent area covered by the earlier 1: 50 000 scale aerial photography.
In 1982, National Mapping was given the responsibility for aerial camera calibration. Calibration parameters were derived from manual observations using the Hilger and Watts Vertical Goniometer. More details may be found in the article Aerial Survey Camera Calibration Facility at Natmap.
Of note was that to gain an insight into the camera calibration process Hotine’s 1929 published paper, Calibration of Surveying Cameras was recommended reading specifically chapters one and three. Chapter one covered aspects like focal length and lens distortion. Other aspects were also covered but in the modern camera most of these were now non-existent. Chapter three was relevant to the process undertaken using the goniometer; calibration by the measurement of angles. This approach was a variation on Fourcade’s method as the camera and angle measuring instrument were all arranged in a single stable configuration.
The Hilger and Watts Vertical Goniometer had originally been purchased by National Mapping in the early 1960s. Having such an instrument in Australia significantly reduced the burden on aerial photography contractors to maintain the calibration of their aerial cameras. Such calibration information was a prerequisite to any operator gaining a National Mapping aerial photography contract. The Hilger and Watts Vertical Goniometer was installed at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO), National Measurement Laboratory (NML) in Sydney were it was operated until 1982.
Arundel Method
As already discussed above, Hotine’s Arundel Method of block, near vertical, aerial photography acquisition and its adjustment based on a process of radial triangulation, was adopted as the basis for Australian national map series compilation. With a large number of staff with significant expertise in Slotted Template Assemblies this process was used by National Mapping, from its inception right up to 1979. At its peak in the Rialto building, Nat Map had up to four separate assemblies in progress at any one time. In 1961, Charles Whitten of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, mentioned in his paper Electronic Computation in Surveying and Mapping, that their work on photogrammetric aerotriangulation was using mathematical techniques for the three dimensional adjustment proposed by Hotine. This work was a precursor to analytical (computer) adjustment of aerotriangulation which in essence was taking the Arundel two dimensional analogue method to a three dimensional digital process.
June 1971 photograph of the slotted template assembly for photogrammetric block 6 with (L-R) Bob Foster, Ian Pasco, Len Bentley and Brian Martinesz, in the Rialto building in Melbourne.
Closing remarks
A change of plan meant that Australian survey personnel, in World War Two, never made it to Greece where they would have come under Hotine’s command. His status post war however, was such that Hotine was requested to be the neutral British mapping expert to overview Australian post war mapping arrangements and priorities. Hotine was replaced by Brown and we will never know if Hotine may or may not have seen things differently from Brown. Martin Hotine’s Arundel method and camera calibration techniques, however, were directly and indirectly applied to Australia’s mapping processes throughout the mid 20th century.
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Demi-Official Letter : FitzGerald to Hotine
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Brigadier M. Hotine. Survey Directorate. Director of Survey. Advanced Land Headquarters. WAR OFFICE. 15 May 1945 We have received the good news of the German collapse in Europe and I take this opportunity to pass on the best wishes and congratulations from the Aust Survey Corps to you and your service, on your effective participation in such a successful and overwhelming campaign. I trust that the years to come will prove that "peace hath victories no less renowned than war". The European theatre has seemed very distant from here, but I hope that we can fully appreciate what England has suffered and its problems of rehabilitation of the troops who have so long held the fort. Our best wishes are certainly with you all. However, I feel sure that you are already looking for fresh fields to conquer and possibly may be contemplating a visit to this theatre, in which case a few advance notes on our activities may be of some assistance to you. My last information letter to you was rather a copy of a D.O. letter to Brig Heaney of INDIA dated 31 Aug 1944. In the meantime, you will have received automatic distribution of our maps and progress reports, an examination of which would give you some idea of our capacity and sphere of operations. With the development of the Philippine Islands campaign, the line of demarcation between American and Australian responsibilities became more defined and the current tendency is for the Aust Survey Corps to handle commitments for Aust forces, with a like application to American mapping agencies. The main exception was for MINDANAO which the Aust Svy Corps mapped as the original intention was to use Aust forces for this operation. Our priority task is now of BORNEO on which the first landing was made a week ago. The current commitment involves about 150 sheets mainly at 1 to 50000 scale and of TARAKAN, SANDAKAN, BRUNEI, BALI KPAPAN, and BAN DJERMASI N areas. This task is well advanced. Our other tasks involve the requirements of our First Aust Army which has the job of eliminating the Jap in New Guinea, New Britain, and Bougainville. There is no indication at the moment of the next stage after BORNEO. Doubtless the situation will be clarified at an early date. You will know that AMS is preparing coverage of JAVA and bulk supplies of certain zones have already arrived in Australia with more enroute. GHQ has not yet indicated the ultimate destination for these stocks and they will be held temporarily c n the mainland. The AMS productions will not be up to date as photo coverage was not available before this. An active programme of photography of JAVA is now proceeding and is being carried out by a flight of B.29s based here at MOROTAI. The programme does not yet involve complete coverage. I can let you have full details of the JAVA map and photo situation if you desire. The organization of the major Formations here has been reasonably firm in recent months, but the changed situation in Europe and the intensification of the assault on Japan will probably involve changes in GHQ but is not likely to effect the Aust internal organization. The Aust C-in-C's HQ is called Land Headquarters (LHQ) with Adv Land Headquarters and Forward Echelon LHQ. The function of Fwd Ech LHQ is operational planning and close liaison with GHQ SWPA alongside which it is located at MANILA. Adv LHQ is General Blarney's overseas HQ located at MOROTAI, while LHQ is in MELBOURNE. The Survey Service is represented by myself as Director of Survey at Adv LHQ, Lt-Col Gillespie as AD Svy at LHQ, and Major Playford as DAD Svy at Fwd Ech LHQ. Our unit organization and allotment for formations is now reasonably firm. The main allotment being LHQ Cartographic Coy at LHQ; an Army Topo Svy Coy and dets Fd Svy Coy on First Aust Army HQ at LAE; a det Army Topo Svy Coy (less det) and a Fd Svy Coy of 1 Aust Corps. The remaining three Fd Svy Coys on the mainland are considerably below strength and are or will be in the melting pot, the personnel fit for tropical service being available for reinforcements. Our manpower position will allow us to maintain our overseas units which I consider are sufficient for our likely commitments. The nature of our campaigns showed we had an excess of field surveyors who could not be fully employed in the jungle. Many of the survey personnel have therefore been converted to photo compilers and general draughtsmen. An indication of our potential in printing is given in the April Report. LHQ Carto Coy printed over 1 million maps and 750000 miscellaneous sheets during the month, and the det 2/1 Army Topo Svy Coy (2 double crown presses) printed 180000 sheets in two weeks. Our output for the Borneo commitment from the compiling to the printing averaged out at about two sheets per day using three units. Our maximum sustained effort using all available Aust units could possibly reach double the above. The air photo potential has considerably increased. The photo squadrons are practically all American. There are two photo charting squadrons in the theatre. These function on direction by Washington and have a comprehensive programme mainly of K17 Trimetrogon photography intended for production of 1 to 1 million Aero maps of practically the whole of the Pacific area. Their recent coverage is of N.E.I., TIMOR and CELEBES. This is not related to operational requirements. In the last month, however, GHQ SWPA has managed to direct activities to cover BORNEO, and probably these charting squadrons will be used to a greater extent in catering for operational requirements. They have sufficient capacity if the time factor is reasonable. In addition, there are Photo Reconnaissance (P.R.) Units with smaller capacity and not so easily briefed for mapping runs. The long range mapping requirements are usually covered by direction of GHQ. Operational Instructions usually give the Force Commander direct approach to the Air Commander and additional photo requirements can be obtained at short notice. These are usually of large scale and not necessarily ideal for mapping. However, the situation is fairly satisfactory and improving. There are no major changes in equipment to report. We have been unable to obtain Multiplex equipment from the Americans. You apparently have been no more successful as, in a recent SHAEF Report, I noticed that you are now contemplating production of Multiplex in UK. You probably have a cable from LHQ Melbourne by now requesting further details of the proposed manufacture. Our requirement is quoted as 2 control booths and 6 plotting booths with the usual accessories including oblique adaptors. In view of the collapse in Europe, it now seems reasonable to think that the Americans may release some of their equipment, in which case you may not proceed with your own production. I would be glad if you would advise me on the prospects of procurement from either source. It is definitely an operation requirement at the moment but whether delivery dates will permit it to be used for such, remains to be seen. It is still premature to worry about post-war problems, but they will be of interest to you as they will have a big bearing on Empire mapping in this part of the world. At a recent mapping conference between the Armed Services and the Federal and State Surveyors General, some important forward steps were made concerning the policy and organization for National Mapping. It was unanimously agreed that the Services be recognised as competent agencies for carrying out the basic mapping of Australia. The main implication being that the Aust Survey Corps will be responsible for the geodetic survey and the production of basic maps at 1 mile and 4 miles to 1 inch. The submission to Cabinet also recommended that funds be provided to ensure the effective continuity of this work. The future certainly seems bright and I feel there is every prospect of producing complete map coverage at 4 miles to 1 inch and extensive coverage at 1 mile to 1 inch in the 5 to 10 year post-war period. In addition, the geodetic triangulation will be a priority task. Such work will not necessarily be confined to the mainland. The RAAF will be the agency for air photography for basic mapping. This is already effective on the mainland, as the RAAF Survey Flight (later to be a squadron) has already photographed about 1 million square miles. It is now using K17 cameras — vertical for the 1 mile areas and trimetrogon for the 4 mile to 1 inch areas. I fully expect complete trimet photography over the whole of the mainland within the next 5 years, (possibly excluding some of our desert). The Aust Svy Corps is maintaining a national library of air photos, including the SWPA [South West Pacific Area] outside the mainland. To date we have 2 million individual prints filed, with another 2 or 3 million in sight, not to mention post-war photography. You can see, therefore, that the Multiplex equipment will be a requirement for many years to come, and the number of units quoted above may be but a start should Federal funds be made available as anticipated. From the production point of view, I feel that there will be a demand for Multiplex by many State mapping agencies which will still retain their normal functions of large scale mapping for engineering, soil, forestry surveys and such. I do not know what you personally think of the Multiplex. You may have some other development in mind, in which case your advice would be appreciated. Our requirement is one of control — both horizontal and vertical — between surveyed points say 50 miles apart, the detail being supplied by simple plotting methods thus avoiding a bottleneck. Today, Lt-Col Leach called in. He is RE and recently associated with you. He is now on the Civil Affairs Unit interested in SARAWAK and NORTH BORNEO and was able to advise on survey problems of those areas. I also received a signal from LHQ advising that Lt-Col Andrews RE (Canadian) was visiting this theatre to study mapping problems and technique on behalf of the War Office. I look forward to seeing him and will be pleased to do all I can for him. I hope you find these notes useful and in turn I would appreciate further receipt of technical reports and developments from you. I am particularly interested in the development of Radar for Mapping, and have recently received your Air Survey Research Paper No. 9 on the subject. (L. FitzGerald) Colonel, Director of Survey.
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