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 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.