
A Small London Company That Makes Beautiful Globes - prismatic
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-small-london-company-that-makes-the-worlds-most-beautiful-globes
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keithpeter
Thanks for posting this. Quote from OA...

 _" Bellerby says it takes around six months to complete just one of the
globes, which range from £999 ($1440) for the smallest to £59,000 ($85,000)
for the Churchill."_

William Morris[1] was a socialist and paid decent wages and provided good
jobs. He did it by making furniture and wallpapers that only the seriously
rich could afford. I suspect we will see more of this craft production of nice
things at costs a large multiple of the cheapest mass-produced items.

(OA lead me to a teaching idea...[2], and it turns out that gore projection is
full of compromises and trade-offs [3])

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Morris)

[2]
[http://www.gma.org/surfing/imaging/globe.html](http://www.gma.org/surfing/imaging/globe.html)

[3]
[https://www.mapthematics.com/Downloads/Gores.pdf](https://www.mapthematics.com/Downloads/Gores.pdf)

~~~
semi-extrinsic
Taking a stroll through London's Chelsea Design Quarter, you'll find there is
indeed a substantial market for craft production of nice things that cost a
serious amount more than the Ikea version.

Have a look at Catchpole and Rye, for instance. They make absolutely beautiful
bathroom fittings, handmade in Kent:

[http://www.catchpoleandrye.com/products/taps/bathroom-
taps/](http://www.catchpoleandrye.com/products/taps/bathroom-taps/)

~~~
keithpeter
Glasgow 1980s in the tenements around Templeton's factory. They had Belfast
sinks with taps like the more retro ones on that page. Just made in brass
locally. Strange how stuff changes - the objects that surround us.

~~~
anexprogrammer
All the stuff people ripped out for being old fashioned. Probably with the
exception of stuff from the 70s, I think every look inevitably makes a
comeback, because it looks old fashioned!

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nathancahill
Interesting 6 minute short about the company:
[https://vimeo.com/63511505](https://vimeo.com/63511505)

~~~
ak39
Lovely.

It's a great example of obliquity in action. He's not interested in doing it
for the sake of making money ... he's making globes because he has always
wanted to make globes perfectly. The money is coming in because of his
_method_ of making the globes. Rare quality and workmanship are conspicuous
aspects of his products. The price and demand are byproducts.

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lalaithion
Note that they are, however, wrong about the fact that globes give no
distortion; viewing any three dimensional object results in it being projected
onto the back of your eyeball which results in distortion. In cartography, we
call this the General perspective projection.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Perspective_projection](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Perspective_projection)

~~~
samsamoa
Since we experience this distortion for anything we look at, aren't our brains
equipped to handle it? Can we really call it a distortion if that is true?

~~~
has2k1
Also consider that the brain already corrects for the upside down image on the
retina, and the stereoscopic input due to having two eyes. The brain's
plasticity is slightly underrated.

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jrcii
I'm happy that these are out there. I make a point to find the highest quality
versions of the products I buy, the product research is somewhat of a hobby. I
researched globes a couple years ago and was disappointed that globes appeared
to be one of the only products I couldn't find a high quality version of. Even
the best I found in construction quality were mediocre and had inaccurate
maps.

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UnoriginalGuy
I'm surprised there are no globe makers that make oblate spheroid-shaped
globes. While the sphere shape isn't inherently "wrong," a oblate spheroid is
more accurate because the earth is compressed.

Would just be a cool niche to have scientifically more accurate globes.

Stack Exchange about the earth's compression:

[http://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/108/why-
is-e...](http://earthscience.stackexchange.com/questions/108/why-is-earth-not-
a-sphere)

Scientific American article about the earth's true shape:

[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-is-not-
round...](http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/earth-is-not-round/)

~~~
zintagon
Roughly figuring, that would be about a 1mm deviation for a 30cm globe.

I don't think anyone would notice, especially on a "bumpy" globe. It might be
less than manufacturing tolerances.

~~~
ptaipale
Whilst perfectionists might appreciate the idea, the difference between a
normal round sphere and Earth's spheroid shape wouldn't be noticeable in a
desktop-sized globe, to the bare eye. And you could maybe detect mountain
ranges by running your fingers on them, but not really by seeing them?

It would be for those of us who like to apply a fairly big caliper to our
globes...

~~~
masklinn
> And you could maybe detect mountain ranges by running your fingers on them,
> but not really by seeing them?

On a 30cm globe, the Everest would peak ~200µm above the globe's average
surface (though it would possibly/probably be too small to even represent),
the tibetan plateau would be ~100µm above the average surface. It seems
detectable[0] but would require a pretty ridiculously smooth globe, I don't
think a plastic-and-paper globe would work.

[0]
[https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130916110853.h...](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130916110853.htm)

> The smallest pattern that could be distinguished from the non-patterned
> surface had grooves with a wavelength of 760 nanometres and an amplitude of
> only 13 nanometres.

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paulpauper
The Churchill globe is enormous

[https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/interactive/_html/_it...](https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/churchill/interactive/_html/_items/wc0001_4.jpg)

I wonder why it weighs 700 pounds if it's hollow

~~~
VLM
If its wood, to eliminate sag as its rotated it would have to be quite thick
and interestingly engineered.

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raldi
Opening sentence of the article: "Looking at a globe close-up is a wonderful
thing."

And then, not even a single close-up photo of a globe.

~~~
colinthompson
A quick google image search turns up a few:

[http://www.bellerbyandco.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2015/05...](http://www.bellerbyandco.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_20150519_134915.jpg)

[http://www.bellerbyandco.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2015/05...](http://www.bellerbyandco.com/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2015/05/IMG_20150518_043250.jpg)

Not the clearest, but better than nothing!

Looks like their blog might be the place to check.

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f_allwein
Here's another beautiful globe, with more traditional cartography, but made in
glass. The company that sells it specializes in nice craft items (this link in
German only): [http://www.manufactum.de/globen-ganze-welt-
kugel-c-1751/](http://www.manufactum.de/globen-ganze-welt-kugel-c-1751/)

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50CNT
Whilst not the same thing, these reminded me of the color 3d printers by
MCor[0]. I wonder whether you could do a colored globe with actual mountain
ranges on something like that.

[0][http://mcortechnologies.com/3d-printers/matrix-300-plus/](http://mcortechnologies.com/3d-printers/matrix-300-plus/)

Edit: Found some pictures of a topographic print
[[http://mcortechnologies.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/10603...](http://mcortechnologies.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/02/10603646_867608479916851_2889663454906018404_n-2.jpg)]
No globes though.

~~~
caf
Even at the size of the Churchill globe mentioned in the article, Mt Everest
would still be less than a millimetre above sea level. So I don't think the
mountain ranges would be very noticeable.

~~~
50CNT
Hmm, I guess there's a point there, since it only has 0.1 mm accuracy. I think
it'd still look cool with satellite imagery though.

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aaron695
> They also take commissions. Bellerby says that they have completed a Pangea
> globe (“the ultimate historical globe”) but they don’t advertise projects
> like that.

I wish these things were more the rule. There's a lot of planets around past
and future.

Along with ditching the euro centric north is always up top. You learn a lot
by looking at a globe sidways since you loss the pre conditioned bias you'll
have from standard flat maps.

~~~
masklinn
> Along with ditching the euro centric north is always up top. You learn a lot
> by looking at a globe sidways since you loss the pre conditioned bias you'll
> have from standard flat maps.

In the second-to-last picture, a relatively large globe seems mounted in a
double gimbal, so it doesn't really have an up/down.

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ezequiel-garzon
I admire the venture, but it leaves me wondering: don't those manual touches
lead to inevitably less precise globes? I get the feeling that the result may
be more beautiful and such, but necessarily less accurate.

~~~
markdown
I imagine you exhausted, lost deep in the Kalahari.

With a roar of frustrating you hurl your desk globe into a ravine. Should've
brought a map.

~~~
ezequiel-garzon
Well, the founder brings up the issue of accuracy: he developed his own
cartography, as he found the available sources full of errors. That makes me
think that he's interested in delivering not just an artistic object, but a
faithful representation. Maybe they use an automated process for borders,
landmarks, etc. Go figure...

PS: I wouldn't hurl any of those babies =)

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batrat
$1500 for a desk globe? not too shabby.

I wonder how much it will cost to make a 3d printed one.

And while searching i found this:
[https://scandy.co/welcome](https://scandy.co/welcome). They are too small...

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Vaebn
You are probably searching for this: www.littleplanetfactory.com

~~~
mturmon
Thanks for that. Very cool:
[https://www.littleplanetfactory.com/products/wmap-cosmic-
bac...](https://www.littleplanetfactory.com/products/wmap-cosmic-background-
radiation-globe)

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xufi
I used to love globes as a kid. This os pretty amazing

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redxblood
I'm from Uruguay, the president they talk about there left office around a
year ago, bit late for the facts!

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stillworks
Extremely Beautiful. Very Cool. Very Expensive. Where is the value ?

~~~
ekmartin
Here: "Extremely Beautiful. Very Cool."

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dharma1
i always thought it would be nice to have digital globe with a touch screen -
maybe once bendable OLEDs are cheap enough

