Projection name: Mercator

English	Français	Deutsch	日本語	Русский	Español	Polski	Português
Mercator			メルカートル

Projection naming principle: Principle of Preponderance of Precedence.
Year of origin: 1511.
Name of originator: Erhard Etzlaub (Nuremburg).
Originator reference:
Year of formulation: 1599
Name of formulator: Edward Wright (England).
Formula citation: Wright, Edward. 1610. Certaine Errors in Navigation. London.
Projection synonyms: Wright.
Projection properties: Conformal; straight rhumbs (in equatorial aspect).
Projection derivatives: Gauss-Krüger, Hotine, Cole, Rosenmund, Laborde, UTM = Universal Transverse Mercator, Space Oblique Mercator.
Naïve specializations:
- transverse cylindrical orthomorphic (transverse aspect).
- oblique cylindrical orthomorphic (oblique aspect).
Generalizations:

Chronology of projection development

1511: Erhard Etzlaub (Nuremburg) creates maps using an accurate Mercator projection. He records nothing of his method.
1537: Pedro Nunes (Portugal) describes the rhumb.
1566 (ca): Nunes describes for the first time a way to approximate a projection that keeps rhumbs straight, but does not construct any maps based on it.
1569: Mercator (Flanders) produces a successful map based on the loxodromic principle, and promotes it for the purpose of navigation. His method of construction remains unknown.
1599: Edward Wright (England) describes the exact mathematics of the spherical Mercator projection for the first time, although his description amounts to an infinite series rather than the modern, closed form obtained from the calculus.
1610: Wright publishes accurate tables for the construction of the Mercator projection.