Drafting Tools Before The Computer

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Pre computer drafting tools are the precursor to what the computer came to be able to produce. In fact several great manual tool companies existed during this pre computer time. One happens to be, Keuffel & Esser.

History of Keuffel & Esser
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History of K & E from Wikipedia

USC-box-2
a metal tool box with a USC School of Architecture sticker on it
My Interest in K & E In 1966 when I entered the School of Architecture & Fine Arts at the University of Southern California, personal computers were not yet available. At that time, everything had to be drawn by hand in other words with pre computer drafting tools. This meant that tools such as a drafting set were particularly essential. As a result, I bought what I could collecting the best.

 K & E drafting set
my K & E drafting set bought in the Los Angeles K & E store in 1966 when I majored in Architecture at the University of Southern California

The Charrette Corporation

Decades later, I worked for the West Side Highway Project in Lower Manhattan. That was just about the time that the dynasty of K & E pre computer drafting tools ceased. Meanwhile another great company was born, the Charrette Corporation. Read all about the Charrette Corporation in a series of blog posts that I wrote.

Drafting Tools and Equipment Born in a janitor’s closet of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Charrette evolved into the largest and most prestigious company of its kind with stores over a good part of the East Coast. Actually, their warehouse in Woburn, Massachusetts carried more stock for example of Letraset dry transfer lettering than the Letraset Corporation itself.

Letraset
Letraset© and the Charrette Red Van
The Charrette Red Van Equally unique to Charrette was the red van that made trips every evening between the Boston (Woburn) warehouse and NYC for its high end clients. Quality was as much a part of Charrette’s service as it was of the products themselves.

Pencils There were several kinds of pencils considered highly functional during the pre computer time continuing to the present. Specifically, they ranged from wooden to metal mechanical. Currently there is one brand of pencil that is highly prized, the Eberhard Faber Blackwing.

Blackwing pencils
The Eberhard Faber Blackwing Pencil available for $920.
T-squares, Triangles, and . . . When I began this post it never occurred to me how much there would be to write about. Therefore there will be more on this topic. But at another time.

SOURCES & RESOURCES

History of Keuffel & Esser
The Day the Slide Rule Arrived
Slide Rule
Technical Pens
Rapidograph Pens
On Writing Well: The History of Blackwing Pencils
Charrette Corporation
Objects | Charrette Corporation
The History of Blackwing Pencils


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