Unknown · 1934
This article reviews the first four instalments (16 sheets) of the Atlas de France, published 1933–1934 by the Comité National de Géographie, with a projected total of 80 sheets over five years. The atlas covers physical geography, biogeography, economic geography, and human/political geography, employing six layout patterns with scales ranging from 1:1,250,000 to 1:8,000,000. The author evaluates sheets on relief, temperature, mineral resources, industry, telecommunications, and population density, praising the effective use of contours and altitude tints in the relief maps. Particular attention is given to the population density maps, which use communal administrative units rather than isopleths; the author critically discusses this methodological choice, comparing it with earlier approaches by Levasseur, de Martonne, and the Ordnance Survey's dasymetric mapping. The review concludes that the atlas ranks among leading national atlases and highlights the need for a similar atlas of the United States in an era of national planning.
Unknown · 1934
This review examines the first four instalments, comprising sixteen sheets, of the Atlas de France, issued in 1933–1934 by the Comité National de Géographie. Planned as an eighty-sheet national atlas to be completed within five years, the project seeks to synthesize cartographically the physical, biological, economic, human, and political geography of France. The article assesses its standardized layouts and comparable scales, focusing on maps of relief, climate, mineral resources, manufacturing, telecommunications, and population. The four relief sheets are especially praised for their judicious selection of contours, altitude tints, and place names, which produces a balanced representation of the relationships among lowlands, uplands, and mountain systems and establishes a valuable generalized map for research. Temperature and phenological maps, production maps employing graduated symbols and colors, and detailed representations of communication networks likewise demonstrate the atlas’s informational strength. Particular attention is given to the 1931 population-density map, constructed from data for roughly 38,000 communes. Although the fine statistical units reveal urban and industrial concentrations with exceptional detail, abrupt color changes between administrative areas create a visually restless mosaic. The review therefore compares the cartogram approach with isopleth, natural-region, and dasymetric methods previously used in France, Romania, Russia, and Britain. It concludes that neither administrative-unit shading nor isopleths fully captures the complex spatial distribution of population, leaving cartographic technique open to productive professional debate. Overall, the atlas is judged a first-rank scholarly and planning resource, and its achievement underscores the need for a comparable national atlas of the United States.
Vosseler. · 1934
The review examines the first delivery of 16 plates from the Comité National de Géographie’s Atlas de France, planned to contain 80 plates; three sample plates had been distributed at the 1931 International Geographical Congress in Paris. Drawing on its physical, economic and human geography sections, the reviewer praises the clarity of four hypsometric maps at 1:1,250,000, with graded elevation colours and intermediate contours. Temperature plates show isotherms, profiles, frost duration and phenological observations. Mineral-resource plates include detailed coalfield and iron-ore basin maps, production statistics and classifications of quarry materials. Nine maps each of metalworking and textiles give worker numbers. The reviewer contrasts the broadly dispersed metal industry, with heavy industry concentrated in the north, with distinct textile regions behind the Channel coast, around the Vosges and in the Rhône valley.
