Bernard J. S. Cahill

Bernard Joseph Stanislaus Cahill (1866–1944), cartographer and architect, was the inventor of the octahedral "Butterfly Map" (published 1909; patented 1913); an early proponent of the San Francisco Civic Center (1899–1909); and designer of the Columbarium of San Francisco.

His Butterfly World Map, like Buckminster Fuller's later Dymaxion map of 1943 and 1954, enabled all continents to be uninterrupted, and with reasonable fidelity to a globe. Cahill demonstrated this principle by also inventing a rubber-ball globe which could be flattened under a pane of glass in the "Butterfly" form, then return to its ball shape.

From cover of 1919 pamphlet by Cahill, "The Butterfly Map", 8 p.

See also

• World map
• Waterman butterfly projection

External links

About Cahill

• Parry, David, "Architects' Profiles: Pacific Heights Architects #30 – Bernard J. S. Cahill". Includes photograph of Cahill.
• Bernard J. S. Cahill Collection, ca. 1889–1938 (Environmental Design Archives. College of Environmental Design. University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, California)
• Finding Aid at the Online Archive of California
• Pictorial materials from the Bernard Joseph Stanislaus Cahill papers, The Bancroft Library
• Bernard Joseph Stanislaus Cahill papers, (ca. 1900–1944), The Bancroft Library
• Furuti, Carlos, Map Projections: Polyhedral Maps
• Keyes, Gene, B.J.S. Cahill Butterfly Map Resource Page

By Cahill

• "An Account of a New Land Map of the World" (The Scottish Geographical Magazine, 1909–09) pp. 449–469 [reproduced in 21 jpegs] The first publication and exposition of the Butterfly Map.
• "Map of the World" (U.S. Patent 1,054,276, 1913) Washington, DC: United States Patent Office, 1913-02-25; filed 1912-03-05
• "Geographic Globe" (US Patent 1081207, 1913: rubber-ball globe which can flatten to a Butterfly Map, or return to ball shape.)
• "Projections for World Maps" (1929) —continued in separate pdf:— "A New Map for Meteorologists: Equally Suitable for Small Areas, Continents, Hemispheres or the Entire World" – both from Monthly Weather Review, 57/4, 1929-04) pp. 128–133; illus.
• "One Base Map in Place of Five" (1940) Monthly Weather Review, 68/2, 1940-02, p. 4; 1 illus.