Beyond the lack of novelty in the projection itself, the claims Peters made about the projection were also familiar to cartographers. Just as in the case of Peters, earlier projections generally were promoted as alternatives to the Mercator. Inappropriate use of the Mercator projection in world maps and the size disparities figuring prominently in Peters's arguments against the Mercator projection had been remarked upon for centuries and quite commonly in the 20th century. As early as 1943, Stewart notes this phenomenon and compares the quest for the perfect projection to "squaring the circle or making pi come out even" because the mathematics that governs map projections just does not permit development of a map projection that is objectively significantly better than the hundreds already devised. Even Peters's politicized interpretation of the common use of Mercator was nothing new, with Kelloway's 1946 text mentioning a similar controversy.