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 vertical blue-printing machine with arc lamp,
complete with trays, has recently been procured and installed. While, however,
technical dexterity is demanded, the graphical method is taught and used primarily
as an 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.