Clock and Compass: How John Byron Plato Gave Farmers a Real Address

196 Pages·2022·12.831 MB·English

by  Mark Monmonier

clock and compass

Clock
&
Compass
how john byron
plato gave
farmers a
real address
Mark Monmonier
University of Iowa Press,
Iowa City
University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242
Copyright © 2022 by the University of Iowa Press
www.uipress.uiowa.edu
Printed in the United States of America
Design by Ashley Muehlbauer
No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any
form or by any means without permission in writing from
the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to
contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The
publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements
with any whom it has not been possible to reach.
Printed on acid-free paper
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Monmonier, Mark S., author.
Title: Clock and Compass: How John Byron Plato Gave Farmers a
Real Address / Mark Monmonier. Description: Iowa City: University
of Iowa Press, 2022. Identifiers: lccn 2021030561 (print) | lccn
2021030562 (ebook) |
isbn 9781609388218 (paperback) | isbn 9781609388225 (ebook)
Subjects: lcsh: Plato, John Byron, 1876–1966. | Compass system
(Cartography) | Rural geography—Maps—United States—History.
| Farms—Location—United States. | Cartographers—United
States—Biography. Classification: lcc ga407.p53 m66 2022 (print)
| lcc ga407.p53 (ebook) | ddc 526/.64—dc23
lc record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021030561
lc ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021030562
For my grandsons, Camden and Cooper

contents
Preface ix
1. No Real Address 1
2. Denver 16
3. Semper 32
4. Exploiters and Advocates 48
5. Ithaca 62
6. Ohio 88
7. Washington, DC 98
8. Camp Plato Place 108
9. Remission 114
10. Postmortem 136
Acknowledgments 145
Notes 147

preface
Clock and Compass is an outgrowth of my book Patents and Cartographic
Inventions, written to offer (as its subtitle promised) “a new perspective
for map history.” By calling attention to the several hundred map-related
inventions among the several million clever ideas vetted by the US Patent
Office during its first two centuries, I introduced academic historians of
cartography and map enthusiasts in general to a broad range of ingenious
but little-known strategies for pinpointing places, navigating highways,
folding maps, projecting worldviews, manufacturing globes, and explor-
ing the promise of electronic circuitry. Few of these patents received wide
recognition—Buckminster Fuller’s iconic Dymaxion projection and some
clever starburst folding schemes are prominent exceptions. Most merely
demonstrated that not all clever ideas are worth marketing. The patents
system certifies originality but cannot guarantee sales, profit, or even an
uncertain launch.
Among the various inventions featured in Patents, one stands out: John
Byron Plato’s “Clock System,” which uses distance and direction from
a nearby business center to give farmhouses an address as specific and
workable as the house numbers and street names used in cities. Devised
several decades before utility companies, town governments, and E-911
offices extended street-numbering into the countryside, the Clock System
depended upon both a map and a directory, which also accommodated
the paid advertising that supported compilation and distribution. At a
time when most rural residents lacked telephone service, it played a role
similar to the phonebook, which might have contributed to its demise. At
the nexus between residents, advertisers, and the directory publisher, the
Clock System occupies a small but not insignificant place in the history