29th Sep 2008
Turn right in… wait, I need to scroll the GPS
We are casual fans of geocaching, the game which lets you trick your child into getting some healthy exercise on a hike by telling her you’re actually doing a treasure hunt. Somebody hides something somewhere (in the woods, on a road sign, wherever), then posts the coordinates on a website, and anybody with a GPS goes to look for it.
It was also a handy excuse to buy a GPS; while I usually won’t splurge on something I don’t really need (I know how to read a map, what’s wrong with maps?), I will shamelessly splurge on things that are purely recreational. But I have to admit, one small gadget is much easier to keep track of than dozens of large folding maps. The only drawback is that it will eventually run out of batteries, which a piece of paper manages to neatly avoid.
It was with great interest that I found this little invention. The Plus Fours Routefinder
was designed to be worn on the wrist – relying on good old-fashioned paper maps wound around wooden rollers, which the driver turned en route.
The tiny scrolls also showed the mileage and gave a “stop” instruction at the journey’s end.
A tiny analog GPS — well, more of a UKPS, since it was British. Cute, no?
This has popped up on a few blogs I read, but my favorite of the assortment is Strange Maps, because it has excellent writing and really cool posts, so they get the Via!
What happens if you need to make a sharp turn? It looks like the route will veer off onto your arm?
My best guess is that the “up” orientation is not always north, but instead points in whatever direction your car is likely to be travellng. Or, perhaps there were lots of 1920’s drivers on Britain’s roadways looking for the large freckle landmark they needed to turn at during their approach to a hairy knuckle.