I’ve been thinking about making a scroll for inside one of my matchboxes and ran across this contraption from the 1920s—the Rootefinder. According to this blog post,
The technology—a curious cross between the space age and the stone age—consisted of a little map scroll inside a watch, to be ‘scrolled’ (hence the word) as the driver moved along on the map. A multitude of scrolls could be fitted in the watch to suit the particular trip the driver fancied taking. The system has several obvious drawbacks—a limited number of available journeys, and the inability of the system to respond to sudden changes of direction. Also: no warning of road works or traffic jams ahead.
There’s an article about “weird and wonderful gadgets,” including this one, here.
