Ongoing Development of the
Cahill-Keyes Multi-Scale Megamap:
Papers and Prototypes, 1973 - 2014

Map Work by Gene Keyes:
Consolidated Link-list as of 2014-09-21

Heretofore, my own Cahill-Keyes links have been all over
the map, so to speak; this page brings them into a single list.

Go back to Gene Keyes home page
Cahill Butterfly Map 1909

Cahill-Keyes M-layout world map silhouette including Antarctica
Cahill 1909
Cahill-Keyes 1975
Note: From 1975 to 1984 I did much preliminary calculation and design work toward a Cahill-Keyes 1/1,000,000 Megamap and smaller versions. I also executed by hand numerous drafts and prototypes. Due to personal exigencies, the project was mothballed in 1984. Since retiring in 2003, and starting this website, I've begun to update and post some of that material, alongside my effort to publicize the world map designs of B.J.S Cahill (1866-1944), progenitor of my own mapwork. And since 2010 Mary Jo Graça's programming skill in Perl and Apache OpenOffice Draw has yielded detailed digital versions far ahead of my early hand-made attempts.

Original
version
First time online
Latest
update
Title (links open on separate pages)
Chronological order by date of original; online versions often later


1973-09-10
2009-07-18
2011-07-01
10 Principles for a Coherent World Map System (Précis of 1973 MA thesis)

1975-11-11
2006-04-22
2009-03-22
Cahill-Keyes "Real-World" Map, 1/200 million, with peeling globes (offset-print, 1980-05-02)

1975-11-11
2009-03-24
2011-10-01
Cahill-Keyes "Real-World" Map, 1/100 million, with peeling globes (offset-print, 1980-05-02)

1980-05-01
2010-02-05
2010-02-05
Cahill-Keyes Octant Graticule (CKOG): X-Y Coordinates and Segment Lengths (scaffold & perimeter)

1982-06-23
2009-03-08
2011-06-09
Notes on Scaling Cahill and Cahill-Keyes Maps

1983-05-07
2007-03-31
2013-09-19
Geocells and the Megamap

1983-10-21
2009-12-30
2011-10-01
Photos of hand-drawn Megamap prototypes

[Hiatus till 2006, when I posted the smaller 1975 Cahill-Keyes map; then in 2007, the 1983 Geocells paper; and began the Cahill Resource page.]

2009-06-15
2009-06-15
2009-06-15
Why Cahill? What About Buckminster Fuller?
[These 17 separate web-page chapters are linked in their own right because they elaborate on my choice of Cahill's design over Fuller's. This list is also an easier-to-access table of contents than in the presentation itself.]



Evolution of the Dymaxion Map: An Illustrated Tour and Critique

Part I: The Dymaxion Map Itself

1) Introduction and Background Notes [same link as both above]

2) 1943: Cubo-Octahedron, Split Continents


3) 1944: Cubo-Octahedron, Whole Continents

4) 1946: The Dymaxion Map Patent

5) 1954: Icosahedron, Whole Continents

6) 1967 ff: Later Editions and World Game Versions

7) 1995 ff: Dymaxion Maps on the Internet

8) Notes on Scaling Dymaxion Maps

Part II: Critique: Dymaxion Map Compared to Cahill:
Seven Severe Design Flaws of Fuller's Map


Fuller
Cahill
1
9.1) Layout assymetrical

Asymmetry of layout; also has two split triangles
Octants in perfect symmetry
2
9.2) Graticule irregular

Irregularity of graticule; different grid in every facet; meridians and parallels splayed and bent; low-resolution 15° geocells
Identical grid in every facet, smooth curves and meridians; suitable for high resolution 5° or 1° geocells
3
9.3) Korea distorted

Contortion of Korea and Norway
No distortion of Korea and Norway
4
9.4) Scalability poor

Poor scalability; the larger the map the worse it looks
Good at any scale from smallest to largest
5
9.5) Anti-metric edges

Anti-metric, irrational, unstated edges of facets: 7,048.89 km
Octant edges are 10,000 km: basis of metric system
6
9.6) Globe fidelity poor

Poor fidelity to globe: off-center icosahedron not aligned, nor in scale, to any meridian or parallel; no comparable 5° geocells
Perfect visual fidelity to globe; octants aligned to axis, poles, equator, and all parallels and meridians; some versions have 5° geocells.
7
9.7a) Learnability poor

9.7b) Learnability poor

Poor learnability: 22 disorienting facets; no equivalent spherical icosadron-globe
Global teaching tool par excellence in eight easy pieces; Cahill map is globe's alter ego
2009-12-30
2009-12-30
2009-12-30
Notes on Re-designing B.J.S. Cahill's Butterfly World Map

2010-08-20













2011-01-12
2010-08-20













2011-01-12
2012-02-09













2011-01-12
• Cahill-Keyes Octant Graticule (CKOG): Principles and Specifications
1) Design essentials; X-Y coordinates; construction; latitude lengths, 1° & 5°

2) Mary Jo Graça: Constructing 1° CKOG & Megamap with Perl & OpenOffice.org

3) Complete X-Y coordinates for CKOG template & 1/1,000,000 Megamap

4) Perl program "OOmacroMaker4" by Mary Jo Graça

5) OOo macros via Perl for CKOG and Megamap

6) Grid protocol in the Cahill-Keyes Megamap

7) Toward a digital coastline in Cahill-Keyes; MJ's "CKOG-Plus" program & diagrams
(part 7 was added later, and preceded by Waterman review, below)
2010-09-24
2010-09-29
2012-01-15
Review of Waterman World Map (compared and contrasted with Cahill-Keyes)

2011-07-01
2011-07-01
2011-11-23
• Cahill-Keyes Multi-Scale Megamap: Beta-1 Digital Version, with 14 jpegs, 20 pdf's
1) Megamap Beta-1 presentation and images

2) Megamap Beta-1 technical annexes

2011-11-20

2011-11-20

2011-11-20

Progress Report: Large test prints, and corresponding C-K globe by Joe Roubal with 5° geocells

2011-12-06
2011-12-06
2011-12-06
New York Times' adaptation of Cahill-Keyes for 10 thematic maps [by Jonathan Corum]

2012-03-15
2012-03-15
2012-03-15
Improved prototype of Cahill-Keyes 5° globe by Joe Roubal; Beta-2 preview image

2013-01-08
2013-01-08
2014-01-23
10 screenshots of Cahill-Keyes Megamap Beta-2, & 4 full-size pdf's: 1/1 M, + 10, 50, & 100 M
Update 2014-01-23: The gym-size 1/1 M Megamap, a 35 MB pdf, can now be easily and quickly panned, without the user getting lost, by opening it in the freeware Foxit pdf reader.




2013-05-28
2013-05-28
2014-02-09
Cahill-Keyes Beta-3: Draft wall-size version of "World Political Map" by Duncan Webb, with countries, capitals, and colors, etc.: 53 screenshots on 5 pages. Includes pdf of 1/25 M map (25 MB), plus 28 screenshots to splice and assemble an improvisational full-size version. Update 2014-02-09: this set is obsolete, but of interest as an early draft, with many close-up screenshots. The actual finished version has now been published, on 2014-02-05, as a 60" World Map Poster, for $65 US; see http://www.genekeyes.com/world_map_poster.html




2013-06-01
2013-06-01
2013-06-01

Enrico Spinielli's D3 version of Cahill-Keyes Map Projection: in color; 5° graticule




2013-09-19
2013-09-19
2013-09-19
Presenting the Cahill-Keyes 1° Globe: World's first and only Earth-globe drawn with a 1° graticule

Around the world in 8 easy pieces: Cahill-Keyes 1° globe (full size images of all 8 octants)




2013-12-09
2013-12-09

2013-12-09

 Nick Stockton, "Gene Keyes's 40-Year Quest for the Perfect Map", Wired.com (Erratum: projection is not "octal gradient", but "Cahill-Keyes Octant Graticule")

and similar article





2013-01-08 2013-01-08
2013-12-10
• Mary Jo Graça's updated Perl script for Beta-2: enables octant rotation, and contiguous extensions for Antarctica, Russian Far East, Iceland, etc.  (Downloadable at that page, or directly online as uploaded by Enrico Spinielli.)




2013-01-08
2013-01-08
2014-01-23
10 screenshots of Cahill-Keyes Megamap Beta-2, & 4 full-size pdf's: 1/1 M, + 10, 50, & 100 M




2014-02-05
2014-02-05

2014-02-05

• Offset-print poster version of Duncan Webb's 61" Cahill-Keyes Wall Map published and now available: order here ($65 US)




2014-03-11
2014-03-11
2014-03-11
Zooming to Crimea in the Cahill-Keyes Multi-Scale Megamap, Beta-2: How to easily view a 9,000 square foot Megamap pdf without getting lost: panning & re-sizing with free Foxit reader




2014-09-21
2014-09-21
2014-09-21
Cahill-Keyes World Map by Others: A gallery of 9 different versions: published, and drafts in progresss




2016-09-14
2016-09-14
2016-09-14
"B.J.S. Cahill's World Map Variants: 1) Conformal": Commentary by me with illustrations; includes my earliest 1975-03 C-K dummy using Cahill's Conformal. Also includes a 1/1 M pdf of a Conformal C-K by Jacob Rus, 2015-04, plus my own sui generis version in the same pdf, and in the same scale and grid.




2013-09-03
2017-01-29
2017-01-29
Cahill-Keyes Computer-Wallpaper Map in a Starry Backdrop. in South Pacific layout, by Duncan Webb

Go to B.J.S. Cahill Resource
Go to Gene Keyes home page