Johannes Wild (cartographer)

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Johannes Wild

Johannes Wild (born March 13, 1814 in Richterswil ; † August 22, 1894 ibid) was a Swiss professor of topography and geodesy at the ETH Zurich , engineer and cartographer . Wild was the first to create a multi-colored curve map on a scale of 1: 25,000 of the Canton of Zurich .

biography

Johannes Wild was born in Richterswil as the son of a farmer. As a young lad, he helped the geometer Rudolf Diezinger to survey the neighboring community of Wädenswil, which made him happy with plans and maps. After attending the industrial school (today a natural science high school) in Zurich, Wild studied at the universities in Zurich and Munich as well as at the engineering school in Vienna. In 1834 he was given the opportunity to work on the federal base measurements in Zurich. After completing his studies, Johannes Wild worked in railway construction in 1838. He was also commissioned by the glacier researcher Louis Agassiz to measure the Unteraar glacier and draw it on a scale of 1: 10,000.

Around 1840, the government of the canton of Zurich decided to have a map of the cantonal area recorded at a scale of 1: 25,000 as part of the survey of the Swiss Confederation. Since 1833, the work to create a uniform map of Switzerland on a scale of 1: 100,000 was coordinated by the later General Guillaume-Henri Dufour . Johannes Wild participated in the triangulation , which served as the basis for the Dufour map .

As head of the topographic office in Zurich, Wild was entrusted with the management of the measuring table recordings and the lithography . This task took up most of his working time for the next 25 years. At the beginning of this activity, Wild was still an engineer at the Swiss Northern Railway and Zurich Grand Council . From 1885 to 1889 he was Professor of Topography and Geodesy at the ETHZ and from 1857 to 1869 he was a cantonal road and hydraulic engineering inspector. In 1852 Wild was appointed Federal Telegraph Director by the Federal Council; a task that Wild did not approve of; after half a year he resigned and returned from Bern to Zurich, where work on printing the new map had just begun.

After his retirement as professor, he retired to his home village Richterswil in 1889, where he died on August 22, 1894 at the age of eighty.

map

Zollikon on the Wild Map

Between 1843 and 1851 the fixed points were triangulated and the map was recorded using the measuring table method. From 1852 to 1865, the “Topographic Map of the Canton of Zurich 1: 25,000” was engraved and printed in 32 sheets on lithographic stones. The draftsman was Heinrich Enderli (1828–1872) from Zurich- Wipkingen ; the lithographer was Josef Graf (1811–1871) from Rottweil, his successor Johann Jakob Brack (1824–1867) from Neunforn in the canton of Thurgau. The map was printed by the printing works of Georg Adolf Grimmiger (1802–1877) in Zurich, which had existed since 1833. Between 1852 and 1868 Grimmiger printed around 30,000 sheets of the map. The paper came from the Zurich paper factory on the Sihl. The wild card was one of the most important models for the Siegfried card that was created later .

In 1990, 32 sheets of the Wild Card appeared as a facsimile edition.

literature

  • Fridolin Becker:  Wild, Johannes (engineer) . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 42, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1897, p. 488 f.
  • Urban Schertenleib: Wild, Johannes. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  • Kurt Wild: From farmer's boy to professor: Johannes Wild (1814–1894). The life story of a master of cartography and railway construction pioneer in Switzerland in the 19th century. Richterswil: Buchdruckerei Richterswil, 1988 [out of print].
  • Arthur Dürst : The topographical survey of the Canton of Zurich 1843–1851. In: Cartographica Helvetica Heft 1 (1990) pp. 2–17 full text .
  • Alfred Oberli: The Wild Map of the Canton of Zurich 1852–1868. In: Cartographica Helvetica Heft 2 (1990) pp. 27–38 full text .

Web links

Commons : Wild card  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Alfred Oberli: The Wild Card of the Canton of Zurich ; Cover to the facsimile edition from 1990; Land improvement and surveying office of the Canton of Zurich
personal data
SURNAME Wild, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss engineer and cartographer
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Richterswil
DATE OF DEATH August 22, 1894
Place of death Richterswil