_Werner's Projection._--This is another limiting case of Bonne's
equal-area projection in which the selected parallel is the pole. The
parallels on paper then become incomplete circular arcs of which the
pole is the centre. The central meridian is still a straight line which
is cut by the parallels at true distances. The projection (after Johann
Werner, 1468-1528), though interesting, is practically useless.
_Polyconic Projections._
These pseudo-conical projections are valuable not so much for their
intrinsic merits as for the fact that they lend themselves to
tabulation. There are two forms, the _simple_ or _equidistant
polyconic_, and the _rectangular polyconic_.
_The Simple Polyconic._--If a cone touches the sphere or spheroid along
a parallel of latitude [phi] and is then unrolled, the parallel will on
paper have a radius of [nu] cot [phi], where [nu] is the normal
terminated by the minor axis. If we imagine a series of cones, each of
which touches one of a selected series of parallels, the apex of each
cone will lie on the prolonged axis of the spheroid; the generators of
each cone lie in meridian planes, and if each cone is unrolled and the
generators in any one plane are superposed to form a straight central
meridian, we obtain a projection in which the central meridian is a
straight line and the parallels are circular arcs each of which has a
different centre which lies on the prolongation of the central meridian,
the radius of any parallel being [nu] cot [phi].
So far the construction is the same for both forms of polyconic. In the
_simple polyconic_ the meridians are obtained by measuring outwards from
the central meridian along each parallel the true lengths of the degrees
of longitude. Through corresponding points so found the meridian curves
are drawn. The resulting projection is accurate near the central
meridian, but as this is departed from the parallels increasingly
separate from each other, and the parallels and meridians (except along
the equator) intersect at angles which increasingly differ from a right
angle. The real merit of the projection is that each particular parallel
has for every map the same absolute radius, and it is thus easy to
construct tables which shall be of universal use. This is especially
valuable for the projection of single sheets on comparatively large
scales. A sheet of a degree square on a scale of 1:250,000 projected in
this manner differs inappreciably from the same sheet projected on a
better system, e.g. an orthomorphic conical projection or the conical
with rectified meridians and two standard parallels; there is thus the
advantage that the simple polyconic when used for single sheets and
large scales is a sufficiently close approximation to the better forms
of conical projection. The simple polyconic is used by the
topographical section of the general staff, by the United States coast
and geodetic survey and by the topographical division of the U.S.
geological survey.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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