What Do You Mean You Can't Refold the Map?
September 18, 2017 7:58 PM   Subscribe

It's been a teeth-gnashing irritant since there's been paper maps that folding and refolding them is so difficult but inventors to the rescue! Sort of. More or less. Here are some patents to solve the problem. Sort of. More or less.
posted by MovableBookLady (15 comments total) 10 users marked this as a favorite
 
It's not difficult if you pay attention to how it unfolds in the first place. If you do it right you can fold and unfold a map quickly, with almost no effort. The mistake is to assume that you start by folding it in half.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:36 PM on September 18, 2017 [9 favorites]


Solution: roll the map. Trust me, rabbit is good, rabbit is wise.
posted by traveler_ at 8:36 PM on September 18, 2017 [6 favorites]


Maps should just use a Miura fold, which is pretty easy to make and which you can refold just by moving the corners together.
posted by a car full of lions at 9:02 PM on September 18, 2017 [9 favorites]


Solution: roll the map.

Sure, at home. Not when you're out trekking the wilderness using a topo map.
posted by turbid dahlia at 9:23 PM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]


The problem has never been refolding the map. That is dead simple, follow the creases.

The problem is that you want the map to display the areas of interest and hide the areas of disinterest, and also do this while preserving the creases. This is impossible in the arbitrary case.

Also, a map with sufficient detail covers an insufficient area.

This is why I carry 5 devices and 17 maps wherever I go*. My wife thinks I'm nuts, but it's only gotta work the one time we are are truly lost.


* somewhat of an exaggeration, but not by much. Take a good compass, kids!
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 11:35 PM on September 18, 2017 [3 favorites]


I would add to your list by mentioning the fact that most of the interesting parts of the map is on a border, necessitating awkward handling of (at least) two maps to an overview. /exmilitary
posted by Harald74 at 11:45 PM on September 18, 2017 [1 favorite]


I'll take any chance to quote Twister:

Rabbit: Look, all I'm saying is don't fold the maps.
Allan Sanders: I didn't fold the maps.
Rabbit: Yeah, well Kansas is a mess, there's a big crease right through Wichita. ROLL the maps.

posted by madajb at 12:00 AM on September 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


I. GAVE. YOU. BACK. THE. MAP.
posted by Fizz at 5:04 AM on September 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


Pre-smartphone, I used to have a gorgeous little pop-up pocket booklet map of Boston. Open the booklet and the map unfolded itself; close the booklet and it re-folded itself. But the limitation was that it could only show a relatively small area at any kind of detail. This worked well for Boston, but I wouldn't be too sure about using one for Houston, for example.

Evidently they still exist. No Houston, but they do have Dallas and Atlanta…
posted by snowmentality at 5:09 AM on September 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


I love the Miura fold idea, but I'm wondering if it makes sense in a map.
I looked at the design and wonder first about the squares. Here in the USA, it's not that easy to get ISO paper size ratios.
You can still make the folds, but now they are rectangles. Does that matter? Is that an important requirement to make the whole thing work?
(Too lazy/busy to test right now)

Also, most maps I use would be around A1 size, so maybe about 4¾" on a side when folded.
I'm wondering if typical map paper has the strength at that size.

Just keep maps away from bad folders.
posted by MtDewd at 5:28 AM on September 19, 2017


The patent, by brothers Thomas and Frank Novak of Brownsville, Pennsylvania, described a stationary globe with a rotating air duct that would use an “upward air blast” to hold a sphere aloft as it orbited the Earth (above). You don’t need to be an engineer to know this would have never worked.

You don't need to be a fluid dynamics engineer to know the Bernoulli's principle which would make it work.
posted by Laotic at 6:53 AM on September 19, 2017 [2 favorites]


I solved it by buying map books.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 6:58 AM on September 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


I posted this because I was fascinated at the methods and contraptions people came up with to fold/refold a map. But when I was on the road in my RV I had a trucker's atlas, folio size, laminated pages, spiral-bound, many kinds of indexes—it had everything. Not for tourists, though. That's what state-line welcome centers are for—free maps of the whole state and specialized maps of touristy things. The best map set I ever had was from a few decades ago, published by Natl Geographic, came in a storage box, map for each state and a map of the whole US. Maps were very well done on good paper and logical folds. I kept it until about 3-4 years ago, hated to let it go. Map set on ebay
posted by MovableBookLady at 10:23 AM on September 19, 2017 [2 favorites]


I expected more below the fold.
posted by surplus at 10:46 AM on September 19, 2017 [6 favorites]


As an origami artist who works heavily with corrugations and folded patterns, Miura folding is the best map method. I have one I use as a sun shield in my car.

It's easy to fold from any size of paper, it's just the 17 degree angle that's important, although there's a relatively healthy fudge factor on that.

as far as maps go, I think it's useful for smaller ones, but giant maps do well with partial foldability. I've never really found, to my satisfaction, the ultimate map folding method. I keep at it though since I love folding maps.
posted by EricGjerde at 6:32 PM on September 19, 2017 [1 favorite]


« Older CCleaner Hiding Malware   |   Astronomy photographer of the year Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments