The Visual Display

Our third example of a space-time-srory grephic ingeniourly
mixer space and time on the horizontal axis. This desien moves
well beyond che conrcndonal rime-'eries becru.e ofiL" clever
plotting field, with location relative to the eround surface on the
verric:l axis and rime/spacc on rhe honzonial. Tle life cyde of
the lapanese beetle is shown.
More Abstract Designs: Relational GrapLics
Ile invention ofdata graphics required replacing the laritudebngitude
coordinates ofthe map wirh more abstrac measures rror
f,ased on geographicai analogy. Moving from maps to statisticil
pphics was a big step, and thousands ofyears pased bdore this
rtep was taken by Lambert, Playfair, and others in the eishteenth
. Even so, analogics to the physical world served as the
ceptual basis for early time-series. Piayfair repeatedly compared
charts to maps and, in the preface to the finr ed.Lt:Lon of The
nnercial a d Political Atlas, argued that his charrs corresponded
a physical realization ofthe data:
Suppose $e money we pay ir any
_one rcar lo, 'he exp€nce
of rhe Na!ry u_erc in gunca.. and rhat thesc guirea. wire lajd
down upon,a lrrgc rable in a strarghr.line._and rouchirg each
omer. and rnosf paid nexr )ear were latd down in anoiher
GRAPHTCAI EXCETL!NCr 43
L. Hugh Neman, Md, a/d hs.h
(Lordon, 1e6J), p!. ro4-1oJ.