Charles Minard's map of Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign of 1812. The graphic is notable for its representation in two dimensions of six types of data: the number of Napoleon's troops; distance; temperature; the latitude and longitude; direction of travel; and location relative to specific dates.[4]
IMHO, the greatest design depicting how time shapes a given process is Charles Minard's masterpiece depicting the catastrophic campaign of Napoleon vis a vis Russia where distance and weather, combined with a war of attrition, > 450,000 - < 10,000 doomed his chances of conquering the largest nation on earth.
Seen below is the English translation of what the map describes.
Figurative Map of the successive losses in men of the French Army in the Russian campaign 1812–1813.
Drawn by M. Minard, Inspector General of Bridges and Roads (retired). Paris, November 20, 1869.
The numbers of men present are represented by the widths of the colored zones at a rate of one millimeter for every ten thousand men; they are further written across the zones. The red designates the men who enter Russia, the black those who leave it. — The information which has served to draw up the map has been extracted from the works of M. M. Thiers, de Ségur, de Fezensac, de Chambray and the unpublished diary of Jacob, the pharmacist of the Army since October 28th.
In order to better judge with the eye the diminution of the army, I have assumed that the troops of Prince Jérôme and of Marshal Davout, who had been detached at Minsk and Mogilev and have rejoined near Orsha and Vitebsk, had always marched with the army.
On capturing time applies, does it not?
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