University of Virginia Library

DRAFTING ROOMS

The drafting rooms are abundantly lighted and are provided with solidly
constructed tables with locked drawers for instruments and materials. Each
student is assigned to a table and has a drawer for his exclusive use. The
regular Drawing Classes execute each one plate a week under the supervision
of the Instructors in Drawing. The more advanced students have
such additional drawings assigned by their respective professors as are
needed for the full development of the courses of study.

Careful attention is given to the training of the students in free-hand
lettering, in the conventional signs of mechanical drawing, in the proper
layout of drawings, and in neat and accurate execution. Exercises are required
also in tracing and in blue-printing, the rooms for which are conveniently
arranged and in close contiguity to the drafting rooms. A vertica
blue-printing machine with arc lamp, complete with trays, has recently beer
procured and installed. While, however, technical dexterity is demanded
the graphical method is taught and used primarily as an indispensable in
strument of research, the thoughtful mastery of which is essential for the
instructed Engineer.

The construction and theory of the Polar Planimeter, the Slide Rule,
and the Pantograph are carefully taught, and the student is trained in the
practical use of these appliances for the rapid and accurate production of
estimates and copies from finished drawings.