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Drafting History 1

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Just an interesting look back on how they did things different and the same as we do today. This survey from 1918 shows answers to questions about drafting from various sources.

Code: 
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.flyupload.com/?fid=736837[/URL]

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Business Page ------------------------------------------
Motorradtraum....
 
Click to expand...
I suggest you use a less aggressive file site than that one, it opened at least 2 windows and a couple of failed popups before I cancelled.



Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
 
I got an alert from the company IT advising me I had violated the acceptable computer use policy.

Oops.
 
Tripod.com is a free web space domain w/ lots of popups. It's banned in many workplaces.
 
Having navigated thru the popups, and other weird stuff on your site, it would appear that the practices then, were not a lot different to the 1960s when I started drafting.
At that time we were still tracing onto cloth with ink and using blueprints. The 4H pencil was the favorite although clutch pencils were becoming more popular, and a newcomer on the scene, the Pentel pencil, with a constant diameter lead was making inroads.
Cad drafting and pen plotters were still in the future.
The good old days. I don't miss them
B.E.
 
Ha

The guys in the office I work in used to draw the production drawings for cars on aluminium sheet with scalpels.



Cheers

Greg Locock

SIG:please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.
 
Pressed, I couldn't open it either from work.

Like Swertel said maybe use the Engineering.com option.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
 
berkshire

Constant diameter lead has got to be allot better than the point for drafting. It has been a decade or so since I have seen a mechanical pen plotter. Last one I saw used hpgl file and floppy drive.

I think the paper addresses conventions pretty well and it would be interesting to know the origin of the ones that were minorities.

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Business Page ------------------------------------------
Motorradtraum....
 
Pressed
Constant point was a lot better and a stack of those pencils in different diameters eventually replaced clutch pencils and wooden pencils, except those used by some die-hards who swore by their chisel points.
The mechanical pen plotters came and went, replaced by ink jet plotters and later laser-printers
I still have a Draft Pro EXL that gets fired up when somebody wants that pen plotter look. If not it's done on the ink jet.

As you say the conventions were addressed well. and as I said, were not very different to the 1960s some 40 odd years later.
B.E.
 
In the late 1960's when we were using clutch pencils with 2mm leads that needed sharpening (into chisel points) a colleague visited Canada and came back with what was probably a fore-runner of the small diameter leaded clutch pencils; this particular clutch pencil used long, flat replacable leads i.e it gave a constant chisel point. The problem he encountered was that here in the UK replacement leads were unobtainable and when he ran out of leads the pencil holder was useless. I have never seen any of these pencils since. Does anyone know anything about them?
 
geoffthehammer

Code: 
[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.leadholder.com/lh-draft-fc-9600.html[/URL]

Do any of these look familiar?

A patent search would probably hold more information about these older items.

==========================================
Business Page ------------------------------------------
Motorradtraum....
 
Pressed
Yes those are the pencils my colleagure had.

I can't open your attachment either which is a pity because I would like to compare things with a drawing I was given by a business contact some years ago. This drawing (of a rail mounted steam crane assembly) is ink on white paper with a rag backing and dates to 1905. The detail is astonishing - even the gears (bevel and spur) are actually drawn as if you were looking at them, i.e. the side view of each and every tooth is drawin in perfect detail. It must have taken a mind boggling length of time.
 
geoff; Any chance you'd be willing to scan and post that drawing? I love seeing the older work...

I have some old bridge and truss drawings from late 1880s through 1920s back home in Canada. Similiarly amazing in their level of detail; many of them with the grain in the wood members drawn very realistically!

The amount of tips, tricks and just all round drafting knowledge that we must have lost through the advent of computers is hard to grasp!

B.Eng (Carleton)
Working in New Zealand, thinking of my snow covered home...
 
Youngstructural

OK, I'll scan a couple of views from the drawing - probably this weekend as I won't have time before.
 
draftsmans personal style has also substantially been lost. Any random set of CAD drawings now greatly resemble any other from different people and different companies.

Lettering, occasional calligraphic thick-thin line weights, hatch-shading, even balanced layout within the paper has largely disappeared.

I don't miss being knocked out by ammonia clouds upon unrolling a set of blueprint copies. I always hated sepia copies where you'd erase the one or two differences and pencil in the unique changes, they always looked cheap to me.

My drafting teacher, an old retired engineer, took our college's first CAD course with us. He wanted to keep up with the times, he said. It was humerous, in the morning he'd have us do arrays of tangent circles, lines of notes, even isometric projections using horizon line, and in the afternoon he'd be at the back of the computer class asking the same questions we did. He was smart enough to say this would obsolete the entire profession of drafting.
 
"draftsmans personal style has also substantially been lost. Any random set of CAD drawings now greatly resemble any other from different people and different companies."

I disagree, sure there's not the range of variation but there is still room for style. My style is a nice clear unambiguos well layed out drawing... not quite as nice as some of the old hand done drawings but perfectly presentable and using a nice font like arial.

The style of most people around here, and from a lot of other places based on vendor drawings/data sheets I see is just to throw views and dimensions down and hope for the best (usually with iso font that looks @%#$%@$ IMHO).

"He was smart enough to say this would obsolete the entire profession of drafting. "

No, and people thinking this has caused all kinds of problems. Sure you don't know how to use descriptive geometry, revise linen drawings, erase with precision, get just the right angle on your pencil lead... However laying out a drawing, making sure it's complete, unambiguous, easy to read... still apply in 2D CAD. Heck some of the disciplines kind of translate to modelling.

Lack of knowledge, discipline, pride in their work etc. has led to crappy drawings around here which causes production all kinds of problems.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...
 
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