Isaak Bruckner (July 23 1686 - April 6 1762) was a Swiss buckle maker, stonecutter, machinist and mapmaker. The son of a pastor, he undertook a number of apprenticeships as a clasp and belt maker, a stone cutter and finally as a mechanic. He was accepted into the Basel guild for that trade in 1712. It was this line of work that eventually brought him instrument making, and eventually to mapmaking: In 1722 he constructed his first globe, developing it until 1725. He traveled to Paris in 1725 to present one of his beautiful gilt-copper globes to the Académie des sciences, which was well enough received for him to be appointed a corresponding member of the academy, and to be made a royal geographer to Louis XV. Leonhard Euler invited Bruckner to the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences in 1733. There, he taught mechanics and produced instruments and maps, including a sundial (on whose use he also published a pamphlet in 1735). He would leave the Academy in 1745, traveling throughout Europe. He produced his most impressive printed cartographic work in 1749 under the auspices of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. In 1752 he returned to Basel, to lecture on geography, mechanics and geometry at the University of Basel. In 1754 and 1755 he and his colleague Daniel Bernoulli created a world map and a globe; iterations of the map appeared in Didot's encyclopedia and would be copied by various publishers. More by this mapmaker...

Samuel Graf von Schmettau (March 24, 1684 - August 18, 1751) was a Prussian Field Marshal and cartographer active in the first half of the 18th century. Schmettau was born in London at the Royal Prussian Amtskammerrat the Embassy of influential Hugueont stock. He joined the military at just 15, serving under various flags for various commanding officers, most of whom were his relatives. He saw battle on multiple occasions and rose quickly through the ranks, being made major in 1707 and lieutenant colonel in 1708, and field marshal lieutenant in 1733. In 1741 he was made Imperial Field Marshal, but transferred to the Prussian Army to become instead Prussian Field Marshal. In 1842 he received the Order of the Black Eagle. He was an excellent self-educated cartographer, producing his first map, a detailed survey of Sicily issued in 1723. A plan of Berlin followed in 1748, and a plan of Ostfriesland in 1751. Learn More...