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 Instructor 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 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


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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.