Gerard Mercator was born in Flanders ( now part of Belgium ) in 1512.
It is unlikely that he ever travelled more than 100 kms from where he was born.
Despite this, he devised a projection which resulted in maps of the then known world.
The book of maps he produced was named ‘An Atlas ‘. He gave us the word. His map projection was still in use 400 years later!
We spend so much time travelling to other places that we forget there is much to see and learn in our own surroundings. There is interest and comfort in the ordinary things in our lives.
I hope these podcasts will encourage you to engage in a bit of serendipitous , and happy, ambling in your area.
Mercator.
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Gerard Mercator was born in Flanders ( now part of Belgium ) in 1512.
It is unlikely that he ever travelled more than 100 kms from where he was born.
Despite this, he devised a projection which resulted in maps of the then known world.
The book of maps he produced was named ‘An Atlas ‘. He gave us the word. His map projection was still in use 400 years later!
We spend so much time travelling to other places that we forget there is much to see and learn in our own surroundings. There is interest and comfort in the ordinary things in our lives.
I hope these podcasts will encourage you to engage in a bit of serendipitous , and happy, ambling in your area.
Mercator.
Rags to Riches - The mysterious 42 Million Dollar Man - John Henry Challis.
Urban Ambling
22 minutes 59 seconds
4 years ago
Rags to Riches - The mysterious 42 Million Dollar Man - John Henry Challis.
In 1890 the University of Sydney received 250,000 Pounds from the Estate of John H Challis.It was the first major private benefaction. In today's money , that is $ 42,000,000!The gift was used to create professorships in Law, Medicine, Veterinary Science, Biology,Civil Engineering English Literature, History and Philosophy.Challis thus made a major contribution to Sydney.He arrived in Sydney at the age of 22 with little money.Over the next 26 years he worked as a merchant, and clearly made a lot of money.What do we know about him ?The answer seems to be, not very much; even though Challis House is in Martin Place and Challis Avenue , Potts Point is named after him.
Urban Ambling
Gerard Mercator was born in Flanders ( now part of Belgium ) in 1512.
It is unlikely that he ever travelled more than 100 kms from where he was born.
Despite this, he devised a projection which resulted in maps of the then known world.
The book of maps he produced was named ‘An Atlas ‘. He gave us the word. His map projection was still in use 400 years later!
We spend so much time travelling to other places that we forget there is much to see and learn in our own surroundings. There is interest and comfort in the ordinary things in our lives.
I hope these podcasts will encourage you to engage in a bit of serendipitous , and happy, ambling in your area.
Mercator.
