Bring Back Drafting!

Back when I was in high school we had the option to take “Mechanical Drafting.” This was a very rigorous class devoted to producing manufacturing drawings for industry using pencil, paper and a whole slew of mechanical aids to generate circles, lines and what not encountered in every day machinery.

Mechanical drafting is understood to be the creation of what is known as descriptive geometry by French mathematician Gaspard Monge while working for the military in approximately 1766. Certainly descriptive drawings have existed for many centuries previous to Monge, for instance Leonardo da Vinci made many wonderful drawings of mechanisms, sculpture, human anatomy and buildings, many of which have been turned into patent office-worthy working models by aficionados over the years. But until Monge made a critical discovery, all previous drawings have been limited in the amount of useful information available to a user of a drawing hoping to make a useful product from it. The reason for this limited usefulness was that, as Monge realized, at least three orthogonal views are required to adequately describe an object and as an added benefit these views can have features labeled with the appropriate dimensions without having to interpolate them from oblique or foreshortened views. Sacrebleu!

This subject has in large measure been discontinued in high school because, I think, our society lost the desire to make things. Plus software called CAD, or Computer Aided Design, came on stream and I guess folks just figured computers would make all the drawings hereafter. Well, yes and no, computers make wonderful drawings in the same sense the T-squares and pencils and plastic triangles of yore made great drawings too. What hasn’t changed or been supplanted by computers is the ability to visualize in one’s mind, assisted by sketches on paper, the desired end product. Once this has been visualized the CAD people can take over and make a drawing in days.

My point is everybody involved in STEM needs the ability to visualize something. And there is an old axiom that says: One does not understand something until one can draw it. So not teaching drafting is counter-productive to understanding.

Now, here’s the exciting thing. I am not suggesting we go back to drafting boards, but instead teach a freehand version using the rules of drafting to produce sketches that convey information and insight both to the sketcher and to others down stream who may need input! Yes, a small class could be added to a school curriculum for science majors to learn how to draw real objects in three-space! The drudgery of T-square mentality is gone leaving behind the shear beauty and usefulness of a sketch. And because well-known rules are involved, a syllabus can be easily developed and grading is a snap while the subject can be taught in an entertaining manner.

I give you two motivations for this approach.

First, in order to patent something, one generally needs to document the invention in a notebook which includes clear and detailed drawings of the invention. QED.

Second, While making the drawing the draftsperson / scientist sees new possibilities open up on the paper not fully realized in the imagination and conversely one also sees problems or impossibilities develop not previously recognized thereby saving time from following dead ends. The drawing has a deeper meaning than the conveyance of beauty from artist to viewer.

Art in service of technology...exciting, no?