Hi All,
Often contour lines leave you unsure of which way a slope is running, I have a simple remedy for this; if contour lines were two tone or had a rough side and a smooth side, it would be possible for each line to have a discernible high side and low side which you would instantly see when you looked at a map, and so you would gain much more information at first glance. At the moment you have to hunt down the altitude readings if you want to firmly establish which way a slope is running. I feel that my idea would make reading a map much more intuitive and wouldn't necessarily make the contour lines any wider, so it's all gain and no loss. The odd thing is though, I've got in touch with OS maps and the British Cartographic Society plus many more and no one is at all interested except for the North American Cartographic Society who very kindly invited me to come and give a talk at their conference, but for various reasons that's a bit tricky.
An additional benefit would be that bumps, on the contour line, say 100m apart, would help with reading distances, but that's really a secondary idea.
I've been told that if I want to get into a professional magazine I need to write a paper about it but it's hardly a complicated idea.
My grandfather was a cartographer during the war so I feel that this project sort of completes a circle for me.
If anyone could help or has a suggestion I would be very grateful, it seems a shame to drop the idea without it even seeing the light of day.