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 board and a
drawer for his exclusive use. The classes of the First and Second years
execute each one plate a week under the supervision of the Instructor in
Drawing. The more advanced students have such 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 lettering,
in the conventional signs of mechanical drawing, in the proper lay-out
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. While, however,
technical dexterity is demanded, the graphical method is taught and
used primarily as a powerful and indispensable instrument 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.