The London tube system always blows my mind.
Its scale, its history, the sheer engineering genius which has gone, and will continue to go, into transporting people across a settlement which is thousands of years old, laid and overlaid, with layer upon layer of civilisation undisturbed by the steel cylinders which hurtle through its underworld.
But my favourite part of the London Underground is the map which represents it: and indeed the story which accompanies its inception.
The map as it stands today was the brainchild of a man called Harry Beck. But the story of mapping the Underground tracks back to when little Harry was just six years old.
Of course, in the early days, during the 19th century, London Underground did not exist. It was a series of private companies dominating different parts of London.
But when Harry was six, it was decided to brand a group of five companies under the single name – The Underground. And as befits a single large concern, they commissioned a visual representation of the combined strength – eight train lines- of this new Leviathan.
Early on, the humble traveller was given rather more information than they needed. The detail of the city was there in all its glory: and because the lines followed an accurate geographical representation of where the lines really led, one part of the map was really rather crowded as all of the lines jostled for attention.
Pretty, though.
It was not until 1920 – when Harry was 18- that someone thought to leave out the geographic detail. In all honesty, when you are hurtling through the bowels of London at a breakneck speed it does not matter one whit that Hyde Park is passing regally over your head.
And still, they were slaves to geography. Those cramped lines nudged and jostled and vied for attention, there in two sectors of a 16-sector map, where the British Museum is king.
It took 19 years of Harry’s life to get to the point where he began his Magnum Opus.
in 1931 he was working at the London Underground Signals office, a humble draughtsman. And he could see something that no-one else could: that one could throw away the geographical location and go topological.
Why? Because essentially, the London Underground is a series of pathways joined by junctures. Carried around by the miracle of electrical charge, the cylinders filled with tiny people travel in short-spurt journeys, stopping at stations to change directions, deep, deep within.
Harry’s wonderful supposition that you could separate each line out in measured clarity: it took a long time to catch on. No-one commissioned his design: it was done in Harry’s spare time. Finally, two years after he started work on the map, it appeared in a small leaflet in 1933.
And the people spoke. It was immediately popular, and ever since, London Underground has thrown geographical caution to the wind and gone topological.
Harry never got proper credit for this work during his lifetime. He went on to design a diagrammatic map of the whole London Region rail system; and even depicted the Paris Metro. He died in 1972, but it was not until the 1990s that the London Transport Museum opened the Beck Gallery, a celebration of his achievements.
Interesting that people who saw his work likened it to circuit diagrams: those line drawings in which the concept of the flow of electricity becomes manageable.
Electricity has been a silent partner in man’s development for thousands of years. Even the Ancient Greeks realised there was a charge created when one rubbed fur on amber. A 17th century Englishman William Gilbert introduced the word electron; Franklin is reputed to have linked electricity and lightening; the Italian, Volta, made a battery which could produce a steady current. Bit by bit, the concepts of electricity and how it behaved were unearthed.
And with it, a visual language evolved.
It seems that, like musical manuscript, a common means of communicating the apparatus of a circuit emerged. We all know what a battery should look like: and how to show the flow of something as ethereal and wild as an electrical current from one juncture to another.
We can show junctions, direction and strength of flow, and so much more using a line-map. Simple, and while not representing what electricity looks like, it clothes a complex concept in a devastatingly simple way.
This afternoon I attended some training: it was about some of the pin-up boys of my intellectual world, synapses.
The romance of these junctions, whether electrical or chemical, has always captured my heart, ever since Dr Jonathan Miller introduced me to them in a TV series very long ago called The Body In Question.
Synapses are, in essence, junctions. In the right electrical or chemical conditions, neurons – cells with an aptitude for being the messenger boys of the body – can take vital signals to and from different parts of the body.
So: whenever we sense a smell or a sound, a sight or a touch, the neurons get busy, like the myriad people of the London Underground, heading for a destination.
Every now and then they arrive at a junction: a gap, a tube station, across which there is a biological switch.
If conditions are right the synapses fire: the neurons pass across; the message progresses along its path.
But there may be more than one station on the journey. Some journeys take longer. A pain signal may arrive first because the journey is short: deep rubbing, however, takes longer but when it reaches the same station, it can override some pain.
The idea of these little connections being the basis of our living lives, of our thinking and our feeling: it fair takes my breath away.
It’s complicated. Nature always does it better than we can conceive. But as I watched this afternoon, the lecturer sketched a spinal cord and a brain and described the paths of different functions and I thought, that, my friend, is just like London Underground.
Only a bit more complicated.
Kate Shrewsday 
London Transport Museum: we went a few years ago and I went with dread. What on earth would I find to interest me there? But I too found it fascinating. A truly interesting place.
Interesting too to think of the mapping of underground trains as mapping synapses. And through that to recognise it wouldn’t, I suppose, take too many of them not working at 100% to make the system struggle. And that’s where education plays such an important part.
I wonder did your lecturer go into such thing as retained reflexes and how to dispel them?
I almost got a job last year with the Brunel Museum, working on education at the Covent garden museum. Wouldn’t have been right, but I am such an anorak about these things.
No, my lecturer did not touch on retained reflexed. Now I’m intrigued.
Important in children with dyspraxia and the like and this
http://www.hemispheres.org.uk/articlesdetails.asp?ID=8
gives some details.
Not all Occupational Therapists agree with the theory, but it seems some very simple exercises can seem to eliminate the retained reflexes and therefore refuce the problems some children have… of particular interest are these two:
“Asymmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex (ATNR): Stimulates the balance mechanism and increases the connectivity between the left and right sides of the brain. If retained the child has difficulty crossing the midline and fails to establish a preferred hand, eye, leg and ear which will limit the child’s learning style, affecting academic performance. Functionally this affects handwriting, and can lead to poor execution of ideas and visual perceptual difficulties.
Symmetrical Tonic neck Reflex (STNR): The reflex that separate the shoulder area from the pelvic area, increasing spinal mobility and posture. When retained, this reflex affects posture, hand eye co-ordination and swimming skills. It results in ‘slumping’ when sitting at a desk, ape like walking, ‘clumsy child’ syndrome, difficulties with binocular vision, slowness when copying and messy eating habits.”
my guess is as a primary school teacher you will have some children with some of these difficulties….
This is really useful Pseu. I’ll pass it onto my colleagues too, thanks.
Off to write a blog …..on what, I have no idea……and try to convert Donne for your poem challenge.
Have you Donne it yet? (Sheepish smile)
Half way through, Phil made me turn the light out. Men. Shall continue this afternoon….half day today!!! Yay!!!
Mine’s a full day, but I start at 9am…enjoy your half.
the most claustrophobic subway i have ever experienced! 🙂
Yes, it is 🙂 But it’s home….I have perfected the art of dangling on those little straps and peering through the glass to find the fabled lost stations…
Very interesting post, Kate. I find it helpful to know where I am when I travel under London, but the tube map is so useful for the purposes of a journey. I love the link with synapses, makes loads of sense.
Sorry for my silence and absence, will explain soon. I’ve missed a number of your posts.
Sunshine xx
Sunshine, friends can meet after years and still pick up exactly where they left off. And you have had a new job to get used to…hope your New Year is turning out as you would have it do 🙂
Any of the tunneling attributed to Roman Empire Britain?
No, Brunel, mostly…it does make fascinating reading though. We have some serious Roman wells which have been found though. Another story for another day.
The Dog and Duck on Guadalupe Street has a map of the Underground on the wall. My husband always points out the stations where we changed trains. All I remember is that I hung onto his shirttail so I wouldn’t be left behind. And those enormous escalators. And the lady who complained that the provisions of the Treaty of Utrecht were not being observed.
As for synapses, I just hope mine keep firing.
Thank you SO much for mentioning Jonathan Miller. Once reminded, I had the bright idea of googling him and found a full episode of the Dick Cavett show. As I write, they’re talking about the BBC Shakespeare plays. Lovely.
He is a joy, isn’t he, Kathy? And such a wonderful communicator. Very, very clever: a true Renaissance man. He’s next to the synapses on my wall.
An interesting journey through the London Underground to our brains, Kate. You have such an enlightening way about your storytelling, and this was among the best of them, giving me words and images to chew on today.
Thank you Penny! You have been keeping me entertained, first with the uses a tin of Campbells soup can be put to; and latterly with your passion for Downton Abbey! Enjoy, it is such a treat….
You might enjoy this post about an organic transistor that mimics the brain synapse:
http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/41539
In any event, your synapses seem to be firing on all cylinders. 🙂
Oh, Nancy, my favourite. A bit of reading about synapses 🙂 Thank you.
I spent a summer in London for a university course and one of the things I loved the most was the underground. My friend and I loved navigating the deceptively simple system and following the maps. We would plan journeys to pubs way on the other side of the city, just to go on lines we hadn’t before.
Thanks for this little bit of history to go along with it.
Aw, Kristine, it’s lovely to hear a fellow London Underground romantic! Here in the UK people like us are called Anoraks. I think that’s a Parka where you come from? There is nothing like traversing the city, except possibly at rush hour. I like to sit and stare, not test my balance and reflexes!
Hi Kate. We were talking about circuit diagrams yesterday. Alongside these were wiring diagrams which were a kind of picture of the equipment showing where the wires went (ie a Geographical map). On that basis a circuit diagram, like the underground map, is topological.
An engineer in a development or servicing organisation uses the circuit, which informs him of the functionality of the equipment he designs or services.
A wireman who builds equipment uses the wiring diagram which shows him where the wiring runs go.
I hope that switches on a bulb. And I hope your head is falling into some sort of peace now.
Love Dad
Finally, Dad, it seems to be 🙂 Thanks for the specialist info.
I love your journeys. One never knows where you will take us. Unlike a tunnelled system, the human brain has so many options, paths less used are still available for use.
I used to travel quite a lot and have found the simplicity of the underground systems a blessing for the blonde who is world famous for getting lost. I avoided it n Beijing though ad I couldn’t distinguish one sign from the next. Ideograms and my brain do not have a happy relationship. (Maybe I need a lot more exposure and education to open those pathways).
The idea of coloured ‘routes’ makes life simple for us ‘idiots of the landscape’.
I love getting my morning dose of Kate, thanks.
Thank you Sidey 🙂 Loved your post yesterday…really got me thinking…
Cheers Pseu 🙂
“The idea of these little connections being the basis of our living lives, of our thinking and our feeling: it fair takes my breath away.” – indeed.
A most interesting post, Kate, on so many levels – thoroughly enjoyed it. bb
Thanks bluebee. I was so taken by your poem – beautifully done. Happy New Year 🙂
Do you ever regret turning down the job offer from Transport for London? You might have ended up designing the maps?
No 😀