Atmosphere World Globes

Atmosphere world globes are one of the worlds newest globe makers. They focus on modern and contemporary designs. Their company slogan is "Standing out brightly among billions of stars", emphasising the companies focus on visual beauty.

Atmosphere world globes use Danish design and Italian manufacturing in order to create globes that are entirely European. Atmosphere started our with a mission to produce particularly aesthetically pleasing globes that can also be used for reference. Hence the globe above was created and name the "Atmosphere". This is a well priced globe that has great educational value due to its dual mapping feature. In the picture shown the Atmosphere has physical mapping (deserts and forests etc are given visual preference), when the Atmosphere is illuminated the map changes to political mapping, where all the countries light up in different colours, making country boundaries more visible.

More recently Atmosphere world globes have produced design lead models focussing on contemporary visual appeal. This became the vision range. The below product was name the "Vision Red" or "Ruby". The vision range gives no compromise on quality for example the Ruby below features a beautifully screen printed vinyl ball and a brushed aluminium base. The vision range was designed with style as opposed to function in mind, each member of the vision series would look great in a modern home or office.

Atmosphere have also begun making floorstanding models as part of their vision range. These "Stem" globes are illuminated and have steel bases and stands.

Atmosphere world globes produce high quality European designer items that have proven very popular. 

A History of Columbus World Globes

Columbus globes are featured throughout JustGlobes. They range from around £100 all the way up to over £25,000. They also produce some of the national geographic globes features on JustGlobes. This page is dedicated to the history of this illustrious globe manufacturer.

Columbus Globes was originally known as "the publishing house" and was based in Berlin in Germany. It opened in 1909. Its founder was called Paul Oestergaard, his vision was to bring high quality reference globes to the general public. This was ambitious as at the time high quality reference globes were largely too expensive to be supplied to the general public.

The globes the Mr Oestergaard produced had superior cartography and were sold at a more affordable price than competitors at the time. The globes became so successful that they were soon manufactured in 24 languages and sold across the world. Within a decade the factory in Berlin did not have the capacity to fulfil its orders.

During the second world war, the Columbus factory and administration buildings were severely damaged, as well as the Oestergaard household. This prompted the Oestergaard family along with Columbus Globes to move to Stuttgart. New manufacturing facilities lead to the creation of the DUO globe. This new globe was patented as the first "dual mapping" globe ever created, where the mapping changes from physical to political as the globe itself is illuminated.

In 1963, the third Oestergaard generation took over the company. Peter Oestergaard was a machine builder by trade, this helped the design and production of the globes. Peter Oestergaard was instrumental in producing the DUPLEX globe, which was a world first. It was the first globe to be made from plastic, its process was also mostly automated for maximum efficiency.

In 1972 a new type of globe was once again created at Columbus Globes. It was simply called the Planet Earth. This was arguably the most information-rich desktop globe ever produced up to this point. To this day the Planet Earth (see above picture) is available from JustGlobes with the same impressive features as approximately 40 years ago. The Planet Earth shows a display of day, night and twilight, as well as the cycle of seasons.

Following the re-unification of Germany and the steady collapse of the USSR from 1993 onwards, the Oestergaard family moved again to a much larger factory to enable a move to a digit cartography format. this allows for a more cost efficient and fast way to update cartography. This also enabled the whole company to operate under the same building where the family could have better control of the final product.

In 1999 Columbus Globes took over another speciality globe maker who was among the last still producing hand-laminated, mouth-blown crystal spheres for cartographic globes. The acquisition of this manufacturing process has essentially preserved this particular method of globe making from going extinct. The Black Forest and Bremen models available on JustGlobes are made from this method.

Defining Features, Functionality and Composition of World Globes

At JustGlobes we are always trying to help our customers decide which globe will suit them best. We are positive that there is a globe for everyone.

Below are a number of important features along with an example of the feature on a globe available from us either by special order or directly from our site.

Crystal/ Glass World Globes

There are two globe models on JustGlobes that fit into this category. The Black Forest (shown) and the Bremen floorstanding globe. These globes are hand-blown like traditional glass but are made using glass-polymer. This is much stronger and more durable than traditional glass yet has a very similar refractive index making it the idea ultra-premium material for the manufacture of world globes. Both models mentioned above are manufactured in Germany to the highest quality standards as one would expect from German manufacturing. World globes manufactured in this way are designed to appeal to the contemporary home or office. Due to the fact that they are hand blown they are only available in 16". This makes the Black Forest an impressive desktop model as the standard size for a desktop world globe 12".


Dry Erase World Globes

There are two models available that can be written on without damaging the cartography. These are Geographer (shown) which is available directly from the website and the Blank Globe which is available if requested. These world globes are defined by their unique design function. The surface on these world globes is similar to that of a white board that you might see in a school or university. White board pens (supplied) can be used to annotate the surface as required and can simply be wiped off when dry. Such globes are very popular among schools and other educational environments.





Gemstone Globes

Gemstone world globes are defined by the material that they are made out of. Because of their superior beauty gemstone world globes are largely used solely for decorative purposes. A gemstone globe makes a great gift for that special person who is oh so hard to buy for. Due to the wide variety of styles and colour schemes available gemstone globes are well suited to home and office decorating. Gemstone globes use many different types of materials, depending on the coloration that is desired for the finished globe. In addition to Abalone Shell and Mother of Pearl, the semi-precious stones include Amethyst, Aphrizite, Belioculas Onyx, Black Spotted Jade, Chrysolithos, Coral, Green Jade, Green Jasper, Lapis, Lapis Siphnos, Mongolian Jade, Mongolian Red Spotted Jade, Mongolian White Jade, Phoenix Jade, Picture Jasper, Purple Quartz, Red Jade, Red Spotted Jade, South African Jade, Spotted Jade, Tiger Eye, Turquoise, and White Jade.

Illuminated Globes

Illuminated globes are defined by their functionality. Thin acrylic or vinyl is normally used to make up the globe ball of an illuminated globe. This is because these materials are thinner, stronger and far less expensive than glass. Illuminated world globes make great night lights, and are great for mood lighting. Illuminated globes have a subtle, understated illumination that adds a warm, more person touch to a room that is difficult to achieve with standard lighting. Models such as the Dresden (shown) are extremely popular due to the incredibly vibrant cartography achievable on an illuminated globe.
All illuminated models available at JustGlobes require access to a power socket and connect via a cable. If an illuminated globe also has a gyroscopic feature the cable may slightly limit the mobility of the globe. All of which must be considered before purchase.

Physical Globe

A physical globe could perhaps be better describes as a globe with physical mapping. Physical world globes show a deliberate advantage to mountains, deserts, forests and the globes relative colours on its cartography and forgoes political boundaries which are more common. Physical globes are popular in schools for geography lessons and with customers who are more interested in physical geography. The Atlantis (shown) also features fully gyroscopic rotation and the most impressive raised relief available on any world globe on JustGlobes.co.uk.






Political Globe

Political world globes are easily the most common type of globes. Political cartography refers to mapping which highlights country boundaries by colouring countries in different colours. This is more popular as most globes are purchased as a reference. Political colouring as seen on the Pioneer globe (shown) can be bright and visually striking.

A Cartographic History of Globes

Globe History

The oldest known western terrestrial globe (a globe featuring the planets surface) was made in 1492 by a German from Nuremberg called Martin Behaim. 

The most interesting thing to note about the first ever world globe was that it features gaps, where we had not yet mapped. The most significant area that springs to mind is the area west of the UK across the Atlantic ocean. 

In the very same year, explorer Christopher Columbus set sail west from Spain sailing towards what he thought would be the east Indies but what turned out to be north America. This land corresponded remarkably to a large gap on Benhaim's world globe. Due to the monumental discovery of north America, the invention of a world globe seemed rather insignificant. This is completely understandable as the discovery of North America in 1492 can only be compare to the moon landings in 1969 for global impact.

Globes are among the most ancient scientific instruments known. Their history extends more than a thousand years, and today they are more popular than ever due to the communication age that we live in. One very significant contribution to the globe came from an Alexandrian astronomer and geographer called Claudius Ptolemaeus (or Ptolemy) in the second century AD. In his most noted works "the Almagest and the Geography", he recorded the earliest known description for calculating the fixed position of an object on a sphere using spherical coordinates. Such coordinate systems are the foundation on which all later globes have been designed.

The word "globe" is derived from the Latin "globus", which means sphere. Throughout the centuries globes have often been sold in pairs, one celestial or night sky and the other terrestrial or worlds surface. This became less popular toward the end of the 19th century. Celestial or night sky globes are still available today at www.JustGlobes.co.uk.

Terrestrial Globes

A terrestrial globe is easiest to conceive as a model of the Earth, it has been viewed for centuries as a symbol of open mindedness by the scientific community as only a world globe shows each and every country in their correct proportions and all the distances between countries to the same scale. This creates no political or relative power bias that some maps display.

Celestial Globes

A celestial or night sky globe is a little more difficult to explain. The ancient Greeks perceived the Earth, moon and solar system as if it was surrounded by a hollow shell or "outer sky" of stars and various constellations, they had of course not discovered any relevant distances of stars. A celestial globe is a model of this outer sky. however because this model is seen from the Earth and therefore an inside point, the representation on the globe reversed, because we view it from an outside point.

A symbol of knowledge but also of power , the celestial globe became an attribute of Roman Emperors, emblematic of their dominion over an empire that spanned a significant proportion of the globe.

After Ptolemy and the Roman empire celestial globes became lost to the world, only the techniques behind them were remembered and passed on by Byzantine scribes. This was also threatened by Christianity which likened astronomy and astrology to paganism. It was eventually Arab scholars who revived astronomy, passed on through Islamic conquests. 

The Printed Globe

Techniques like wood cutting to fashion objects and art out of wood and various metal engraving became increasing used toward the end of the 15th century in Europe. Thus early European globes were made from wood or metal.

Wooden world globes had linen or vellum laid over them on which the appropriate cartography was printed. When metal globes were used the cartography was engraved onto the surface. 

The above traditional methods of globe manufacture were soon replaced by the printed globe.

It was in 1527 that the first paper gores were printed. This relates to the technique that is used today to create the highest quality globes. The cartography for the globe is printed onto convex paper segment and then laid on to the sphere as if replacing the peel of orange. This is the only method that creates no spatial or directional distortion and it is why globes are a superior reference tool when looking at the world as a whole.

Reference texts:

Globi Neerlandici by P.v.d Krogt

Glboes from the Western World by E.Dekker and P.v.d Krogt.

A History of the World Globe

Why are world globes important
World globes are the most accurate maps. The reason for this is very simple, Earth is a sphere, so is a globe. For this reason when you look at a world globe you can truly see the way the world looks in all of its simplicities and complexities.
All countries are shown in their true sizes relative to each other. There is no direction distortion so the distances between cities can be calculated, also a globe can be used to calculate the current time in each place in the world.

It has already been said that globes are much more accurate than any flat map. Imagine that the worlds surface is like an orange, peeling off the skin and laying it flat would leave lots of gaps. How to accurately reproduce a globe onto a flat map surface is what cartographers have been trying to do for at least 400 years. On many world maps, countries appear distorted, especially those far away from the equator. Greenland might appear bigger than Africa for example when it is 4 x smaller.

Flat world maps do have their uses though, after all you can't fold up a globe and put it in your pocket when travelling. Maps are particularly useful when used as objects to help find your way around a city for example. When a map is confined to such a small area, any distortions or other problems that occur at a world level are minimal but when looking at the whole world a globe is clearly a more accurate and more attractive choice.

Early opinions on the Earth's shape
When astronauts look down at the Earth from space, all they see is a huge blue and white sphere. Clearly thousands of years ago humans did not have the ability to pop into space to see what the world looks like.

It must have been very hard to imagine the shape of the world hundreds of years ago as must of the world, as far as the eye can see seems almost totally flat. Its really no surprise that many people believed the world to be a flat disc, also as many early sailors who sought to explore never returned you might imagine that it is quite easy to come to the conclusion that they may have simply fallen of the edge of the Earth.

In Greece, storytellers used to describe the world as a flat disc, surrounded by the "Ocean River". Hundreds of years later, Aztecs had a similar idea about the world. They believed that the world was a flat disc with a great circle of water around it.

Some had the right idea
Even thousands of years ago people were finding wholes in the argument of a flat world. If it was true that the world was flat then why did the sun rise in the east and set in the west every day? Why did the stars move in circles in the nights sky? These observations didn't prove that the world was round but they did give vital clues as to the true shape of the Earth.

Many myths trying to explain motions of the sun were created by various religions. For example the story of the chariot pulling the sun across the sky each day. Such stories were quite persuasive but little by little more and more people came to believe that the Earth must be a sphere.

The truth emerges
At around 250BC, the Green mathematician Eratosthenes noticed that a post in the city of Alexandria, Egypt cast a shadow at noon on the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. At the same time in Syrene, a town due south from Alexandria at an angle. This was because the Earth's surface was curved, Eratosthenes reasoned.

By knowing the distance between the two cities and by calculating the angle of the pole to the shadow. Eratosthenes was able to apply geometric theory to determine the diameter of the world to an impressive accuracy. He calculated that the world was 7850 miles in diameter when it is 7926 miles in diameter at the equator.

Though Eratosthenes argument was very impressive and seemed to be irrefutable it must have been to complicated a reasoning to persuade the massive majority of people to come over to the correct way of thinking.

Where did the Earth fit into the universe?
By around 150BC most Greeks had accepted that the Earth was a globe, sphere shaped.
There was still a problem in that they did not know how this world globe fitted into the universe. Aristarchus, who lived in the 200s BC said correctly that the Earth revolved around the sun, but not many people believed him. Instead, they believed Claudius Ptolemy, an astronomer who said the moon, the sun, the planets and stars revolved around the Earth in a series of circles. For another 1400 years this mistaken idea was believed and accepted by the wider community.

In 140BC, a Greek man known as Crates of Mallus built what may have been the first globe in history. It is difficult to picture what this globe must have looked like as the Greeks had not explored Australia, the Americas not the mention the poles.

What were the Chinese thinking?
In China at around the same time as the Greeks, some Chinese astronomers thought the Earth was a hemisphere-like globe sliced in half underneath a dome shaped universe.

Other Chinese thinkers thought the universe like an egg, with the earth as the yolk. Then there was a third group of Chinese astronomers who said the universe was an infinitely large, almost empty space, where spheres like the sun, the moon and the Earth floated around very very far way from each other. This is very close but like the Greeks, the Chinese dropped this idea and stuck with the theory of the egg-shaped universe.

What were the Arabs thinking?
Astronomers in India learned about the universe by reading books written by the Greeks. Around 500AD, an Indian astronomer Aryabhata explained why the stars circled the Earth in the night sky. He believed the Earth must be spinning like a top.

The Arabs learned about astronomy from previous cultures, the Chinese and Greeks. They also used shadows to predict the diameter of the Earth. In the 1300's a former slave called al-Khazini came up with the idea of gravity, he stated that everything was attracted to the centre of the Earth.

Finally getting rid of old myths
Before European explorers and conquerors sailed across the oceans in the 1400s and 1500s, cartographers in Europe made globes. In 1492, Martin Behaim, a German cartographer, made the oldest globe that still exists today. Years later, the Dutch would become famous across Europe for striving to create the highest quality, most detailed globes of the time.

The problem was that even up to the 1600s people in power would still believe that the Earth was the centre of the universe. I real push began by educated people to persuade people against this way of thinking. Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, German astronomer Johannes Kepler and Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei proved that all views about the Earth being the centre of the universe were nonsense. They showed conclusively that the Earth orbited the sun. Many religious leaders refused to believe these new ideas, the pope famously persecuted Galileo and the books of Copernicus were banned.

Finally in Sir Isaac Newton there was a man powerful enough and respected enough to force the issue. Isaac came up with the first theory that explained the movements of the sun, the moon and the planets. Newton realized the force that causes an apple to fall from a tree was also the force that kept the moon in orbit around the Earth. Newton explained that this force called gravity held the solar system together. Today, scientists are still getting more information about the universe and the laws of physics, but Newton's laws of motion give a pretty good description of everything that happens around us to this day.


Thanks to Replogle World Globes for this text.

Gemstone Globe Materials

At JustGlobes we strive to offer the highest quality and most detail ranges of Gemstone globes. Our gemstone globes are made using around 30 semi precious stones, some of which are described here.

Malachite
Malachite is a copper carbonate mineral, which essentially means that it is composed of Copper, Carbon, Oxygen and Hydrogen.

The name Malachite is derived from Greek which roughly translates to "mallow-green stone". This name given to the stone as the colour resembles that of the Mallow plant.

Malachite was used as an expensive paint pigment up to about 1800. Malachite is a good pigment as it very lightfast, meaning it doesn't fade with time or exposure to the sun as much as the majority of other minerals. This is an excellent trait for gemstone globes as materials that can resist fading over time will make for a brighter, more colourful gemstone globe for longer.

Malachite has a downside as a pigment and that is that it varies in colour noticeably depending on Oxygen concentration, this obviously produced inconsistent colour. For globes however, this is not a problem as each gemstone world globe is handmade, they are all unique and ever so slightly different. Colour variations in the semi precious occur in our gemstone world globes regularly due to changes in supply location, we feel this adds to the exclusivity and charm of the globes.

Recent historical evidence suggests that Malachite has been mined for around 300 years.

Mother Of Pearl
is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer, it also it the material that makes up pearls. It is extremely strong and resilient making it a great globe material.

Oyster shells are used in the mother of pearl gemstone world globes at JustGlobes. They are both readily available and have a large and relatively flat inner shell layer making them the idea source for the mother of pearl globes.

When mother of pearl is broken down into individual components it is actually formed from calcium carbonate  similar to chalk, a common material used to write on black boards. This may seem unflattering to what is an expensive and precious material, but the way that mother of pearl is formed tells a better story of how mother of pearl has come to be considered a precious material.

Tiny layers of calcium carbonate smaller and thinner that the eye can see and layered on top and side by side each other. These are jointed together by a matrix of organic material formed by the mollusc (in our case Oyster) itself. A good way to imagine mother of pearl is to think of the tiles that one might see in a bathroom in layers, one of top of another. This is a very simple yet beautifully organised pattern that creates the shimmer effect that makes mother of pearl so appealing.

Jasper
Jasper is a form of silica and can have a variety of different colours; red, yellow, brown, green and even blue.

Jasper breaks with a smooth surface, this is an excellent ornamental quality hence Jasper is a widely used material in gemstone products. As can be seen in the picture above Jasper is a very deep and beautiful material, perfect for globes. It can also be highly polished to increase its visual effect.

Jasper means "spotted or speckled stone", and is derived ultimately from Persian.

Winkel Triple Protection Globes/ Maps

Winkel Triple Protection (Winkel III) is a map projection.

It is used in order to try to translate an image of the earth from a 3D sphere as seen on a globe, to a rectangular map.

As discussed in other pages it is impossible to translate a globes visual cartography onto a 2D rectangle such as a map without directional and spatial distortion making maps less accurate the some world globes.

Complicated mathematical equations are used and integrated into software which aims to minimise the distortion effects created during map production.

There are many different mathematical techniques used to create maps each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

This page aims to help you decide which type of map you would like to buy, or if you would like to buy a globe.

The Winkel III projection was given its name by Oswald Winkel who proposed the projection in 1921.

This map projection technique measures 9th of 100 most accurate map projections. It produces only little distortion of country size and produces small distance errors between countries.

In 1998 Winkel III projection maps replaced the robinson projection as the standard projection for world maps made the National Geographic. Many of which are features on our site. www.JustGlobes.co.uk/world_maps.html.

Winkel III is unusual in that it is created by averaging the X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) coordinates from the two other seldom-used projections: the Equirectangular and the Aitoff. this creates slightly curved lines of projection which makes a better model of spherical cartography than if the lines were parallel as it the Mercator projection.

As mentioned before there will always be distortion on a map that would never be present on a world globe. Each projection technique has its downsides.

The major downside of the Winkel III projection is that it is not an equivalent map projection thus it suffers from compression. This means that some parts of the world, especially the polar regions toward the east and west of a map are slightly distorted.