The draftsman

Preface

This book contains a message to draftsmen. Its aim is to show them the way by which it is possible to rise aibove seeming intolerable conditions, — conditions which have been imposed gradually though persistently for many years until draftsmen have come to realize that they are not getting a square deal.

The writer's viewpoint is obtained from the outside as well as the inside of the drafting-room and is 'based on years of experience, covering the greater part of the United States. His thought is not one of bitterness, rather is it one of determination to present the draftsman's case precisely as it exists, sparing none. That the evils of the drafting-room may be destroyed, it has seemed necessary to dwell at length upon them.

The critical reader must realize that the work is unique in that it is the only book written on the ■business or economic side of drafting; therefore the material is entirely original. A great amount of time has been spent on the study of the problems confronting the draftsman and a most careful search has Ibeen made to determine the underlying causes and their remedies. The effects every one is familiar with ; it is primary causes we want uncovered. In every instance where unsatisfactory conditions are mentioned a remedy is given or suggested.

Thus in a. spirit of helpfulness this (book is dedicated to those men who are engaged in drafting, the finest, the noblest, the most tedious work there is. The men who designed and made the plans of the steel and concrete ships, the sub-chasers, airplanes, tanks, battleships, cannon, machine guns and a thousand other things, all of which, to say the least, helped to perpetuate freedom on earth. They doubled over the drafting-board to beat the mad Hun at his own game of scientific warfare and they did it. They schemed, planned, invented and developed the engines of war and destruction but without any of the glory of seeing or helping them accomplish their victorious purpose. The praises of the draftsman have never been sung for they live and work in obscurity.

ROBERT W. SHELMIRE.

Chicago, May, 1919.

Chapter I. The Key-note

CHAPTER I.

THE KEY-NOTE.

The substance of this book, in a word, is a plea for RECOGNI- TION of the draftsman. The key-note of recognition is ORGAN- IZATION. Without organization there will be no recognition.

Much to the shame of the engineering profession draftsmen in general are held in low esteem. It is hard to explain why this is so, since almost iaill engineers were formerly draftsmen and the draftsman of today is the engineer of tomorrow. The drafting-room is both the cradle and the workshop of the engineer and of all engineering projects. Engineers, many of them, have been raising themselves as it were by keeping the draftsmen down. Naturally draftsmen have become discontented; hence the prevailing and nation-wide unrest in drafting-rooms.

The unrest must be quieted but it needs to be done scientifically. Furthermore it must be done in a true democratic spirit, and the attempt to define draftsman as something apart from engineer and engineering is not democratic. Germany has her classes of engineer employers and employees. Do we want this in America?

Draftsmen are forming unions. They have been driven to this by those who should be foremost in trying to uplift them. Draftsmen have themselves come to believe they are tradesmen, when in fact, they are no more so than are dentists, surgeons or teachers. This tendency to unionize is most serious because of the intimate knowledge draftsmen possess of all the plans, processes and patents upon which rest the very foundation of modern industry. Engineers, what are you doing to prevent it? Read this book and get the draftsman's viewpoint. Then let cooperation replace humiliation. Start at once an employees' representation plan in the drafting-room.

The managing of drafting-rooms must receive higher consideration. They are, generally speaking, run in a haphazard manner. If every drafting-room were to be carefully and scientifically conducted, sufficient saving would be effected to give draftsmen the one hundred per cent increase to which I believe they are entitled. Moreover when engineers and draftsmen work together and control the operation and construction of all engineering works, to the exclusion of lawyers, doctors and politicians, untold millions will be saved the public.

The employment situation is one which reflects no credit on engineers and their societies. True the societies were not organized to furnish employment service, but does this excuse the members individually for not extending assistance to the younger men who are growing up in the profession and will succeed them? The exploitation of young engineer-draftsmen constitutes a most shameful chapter in the history of engineering. To refuse aid and to force these young men to seek the agencies was bad enough, but to find engineers operating and profiting thereby is a bitter experience which many have gone through.

Much of the responsibility for the draftsman's predicament is placed on the older engineers. Draftsmen are not free from blame however. They have remained all too willingly in a comatose state while the world around them has advanced in thought and action. Just as nations have learned that none can be free without assisting others to be free, so draftsmen too must realize that none can live to themselves and ignore the problems of society. Draftsmen must help other draftsmen. They must exercise the right of franchise, particularly concerning engineering matters. They must come out of themselves and mingle with other human beings. They must read technical magazines, keep up-to-date, tand be alive.

Schools which teach drafting must give the students a bette idea of the im,portance and dignity of the work of engineering, present the business side correctly, and cease trie misleading advertisements. Thousands of young men are today being deluded with the idea that a demand exists for draftsmen at salaries of "$35 to $100 per week to start." Every draftsman regretfully -knows that $35 per week was almost the maximum pay for men of experience before the war and that the average increase since then has no more than equalled the increase in living expenses. Draftsmen should exert themselves to put these dishonest schools out of business and not permit them to exploit the profession.

THE KEY-NOTE. 11

A word has been said about draftsmen's conventions to standardize drafting and working conditions. It will mean a tremendous saving when once this is done for there is a vast amount of energywasted at present. Positions must be standardized so that draftsmen filling positions which require equal amount of training shall receive equal pay in all branches of engineering.

The chapter on patents contains information regarding proper procedure to protect an invention. The subject is important to all draftsmen and nowhere else is it given in such condensed form. Almost every one is grossly ignorant of the nature and value of a patent, and draftsmen, above all, should know more about them.

Finally — organize. With the existing societies if possible, but ORGANIZE. The union method is beneath the intelligence of draftsmen. Show the tradesman a better example of organization, one which fights for and demands only what is right. If salaries are too low, then prove that you are worth more. If -working conditions are unsatisfactory or the management is poor, present your case properly to the highest officials . Workmen have rights which employers are now bound to respect. If drafting is not the most pleasant occupation, let's make it so. Remember, drafting is engineering and draftsmen are engineers.

Chapter II. The Draftsman And His Work

CHAPTER II.

THE DRAFTSMAN AND HIS WORK.

APPRENTICE SYSTEM. A generation ago drafting was considered a trade and in fact that is about all it was. Men became proficient in making drawings but it was largely mechanical or physical labor and did not include as much calculating or mental labor as the drafting of today. This being also the day of the apprentice, most mechanical plants required their apprentices to spend some months in the drafting-room before becoming journeymen machinists. Then followed a similiar system of apprenticing young men in the drafting-rooms without requiring shop experience. This was a sad mistake. The draftsman who has never worked in a shop or on construction where he can see and feel his work go together, never makes a thoroughly experienced man. In those early days great importance was placed on learning a trade. Since drafting was considered the same as a trade, a beginner, whether he was an apprentice or not, received little or no pay during the first year or so. He was given expert instruction however, and became a good draftsman. The older men acted as teachers and task masters and were expected to tell the younger ones what to do and how to do it.

SCHOOL SYSTEMS. Times have changed since then. Now it is hard to find young men who have been well trained, because the engineering schools do not place sufficient importance on this work to give a good foundation on which to build a thorough draftsman. There is little system about this training in the colleges tand schools and young men are turned out with various kinds of rules and methods instilled into them by teachers who many times have themselves only a superficial knowledge of the art.

For this reason the correspondence and night schools have been able to fill a need since their students are mainly ambitious young fellows who plug along until they develop into very good draftsmen. They are able to earn a small wage from the beginning which makes them even more desirable than college men, because the latter, having been taught to consider drafting menial work (a most contemptible attitude) do not accomplish as much. Just how much time to devote to drafting in college is a problem for educators to decide, but to teach a student, or even to permit him to leave college, with the idea that drafting is lowly work and beneath the college man is all wrong. It makes him a snob and every true American hates a snob. If a correspondence school student makes a better workman it is because he is not handicapped in this way and is willing to work and learn.

THE ART OF DRAFTING. Drafting has become a highly developed art, yet we are not dealing with the artist draftsman and only to a certain extent with the architectural draftsman but more particularly with the men now known as engineering draftsmen. The foundation of this work is of course plain mechanical drawing. The development proceeds into the higher work of calculating and designing in connection with the drawing.

There are various branches of drafting work, each highly specialized and requiring special study for each one, except of course, for the fundamentals of drawing, which remain the same. The work of a structural draftsman differs greatly from that of a machine draftsman and from the others as well. However all lines of drafting overlap and there is no distinct separation between them. For instance a ship built of steel requires considerable work from the structural draftsman. All ships require machine drafting also. Railroad construction requires a particular type of training for draftsmen' which is sometimes called civil engineering drafting, meaning almost anything but nothing definite. It includes the drawing of maps, grade profiles, bridges, buildings and plans of all conditions of railroad building from sea coast to mountains, under the head of Maintenance and Construction. In the Motive Power department plans are made for engines, cars and all mechanical equipment of the railroads. In the Signal department plans of signal layouts, electrical equipment and all such work are drawn.

The work in all lines of drafting requires infinite patience. Particularly is this true where much lettering is to be done, as on maps, etc., and also in machine drafting which requires great detail. Machine drafting or as it is usually called, mechanical drafting, requires

THE DRAFTSMAN AND HIS WORK. 17

the most exacting work. A man may actually spend months on one drawing of a complicated machine. Structural drafting, which includes the drafting for all steel and concrete structures, is probably the most complicated, that is to say, when it is complicated at all, because the draftsman must visualize the connections of the steel members and the structure as a whole and at the same time do a great deal of calculating as the drawing proceeds. The calculations nearly always require trigonometry and sometimes the most complex mathematical formulae. To draw skewed connections of steel work requires an intimate knowledge of descriptive geometry. In mining work the underground surveys have to be plotted accurately on maps in order to tell just where the workings are and to see that they are within the property lines.

Every draftsman should be familiar with two or three branches of the work and have sufficient experience to enable him to take a position in any one of them. It .may not always be possible, but it is a great protection, for if work becomes slack in one branch, a man, thus prepared, has the advantage of knowing how to do something else. In the same way construction men who have been through the drafting-room are able to save themselves a loss if they can obtain drafting work in the winter or at other times when they can not work outside. Dull periods often occur in all branches of engineering and necessitate frequent changes.

STANDARD PRACTICES. In all lines of drafting it is most important to know the system in the particular drafting-room in which you are working because there is no well established system in common use for the preparation of plans. That is, a drawing of a machine made in one plant does not conform to the practice of another shop and so it might be impossible to build it there. Certain branches of engineering have 'become standardized to some extent however. A structural steel product could be built in any structural plant, but every one has a different system of notation for their drawings which is not understood in another plant and is apt to cause confusion.

The reason there is so much chaos in the practice of drafting is because there is no association in which draftsmen get together to harmonize their work. They are eligible to membership in the big national societies but the caste system practically bars them from taking any active part. In railroad work there has been some standardizing largely because of the interstate transportation system which necessitated the repairs of equipment on roads to which the equipment does not belong. Therefore the repair shops had to be able to build the same repair parts -and work to uniform drawings. What uniformity there is to railroad drafting is due to the Master Car Builders' Association and the American Railway Engineering Association, but a great deal of "lost motion" yet exists on the railroads.

Standardizing for -all drafting work is something which must eventually come about for the lack of system at present is causing an immense loss of time and money. The kind of efficiency or system which makes a draftsman a mere tooth of a cog-wheel in a great machine is however not the kind of efficiency desired. There should be a system of standards which does not require a, draftsman to spend three or more months each time he goes to a new plant, learning to work on exactly the same kind of drawings to which he has been accustomed. Since it is necessary that draftsmen change their positions more or less frequently because of the fluctuating condition of engineering work, it should be made as easy as possible for one to start at a new plant without losing any of the efficacy acquired at a former place.

The solution of this question is draftsmen's conventions where they may thrash out their problems in detail. Companies should grant men the time and pay the expense of delegates to a convention for this purpose because it means to them an increase in the productive effort of the men. It costs several hundred dollars to break in a new man at almost any kind of work. Shop managers compile figures representing this cost on various lines of skilled labor. No set figure could be given for drafting in general, but somewhere between $100 and $1000 would cover almost any case. Of course when a draftsman changes from one line of work to another he has to learn the shop and office practice of that different line, which increases the cost of "breaking in." However this expense to companies would be greatly lessened if they would encourage their draftsmen to standardize their work throughout the country.

THE DRAFTSMAN AND HIS WORK. 19

IMPORTANCE OF DRAFTING. Drafting has assumed a very important position in the engineering field, not to mention the entire field of industry. It also represents a very considerable part of the cost of engineering work. Occasionally the drawings cost much more than they should, as the result of various conditions. Possibly politics enters into the situation and the cost is not a consideration, or perhaps it is lack of system or poor management. There may be no check on the work and no one knows, for there is much drafting which is done carelessly and without proper supervision. Such drafting is a waste of time. If a drawing is of any value at all it must be correct and made in such a way as to reflect the intelligence of the engineer who plans and designs, so that every man who must work to that drawing has confidence in it and in the designer. "Cheap" drafting is expensive because some one always pays double in the end.

Every drawing represents some one's thoughts and ideas. These ideas are intended to meet requirements at hand and should be carried out in a drawing well made and accurate within reasonable bounds. It must be plain and every line for some purpose and all complicated details enlarged so that no workman can go wrong. Many draftsmen fail to realize that, when their drawings frequently come back from the shop for explanations, information is lacking. When a drawing is made correctly there is little speculation or argument about it. Every figure must be intelligible not only on the tracing but on the blue print. Remember a workman has to read it in the shop or an engineer in the field where they do not always have good light and it is frequently blurred by dirty or greasy hands.

The importance and value of drafting and the great responsibility often taken by draftsmen is not appreciated by the public nor does the engineering profession give proper credit where it is due. The value of work turned out by one draftsman will often run into millions of dollars per year. Doubtless he will not be entirely responsible : then again he may be. For instance, it was the draftsman who took a hastily drawn plan of a cantonment, sketched on the water and sewer pipes, calculated the proper sizes and within a few days the entire system was under order, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Does 'any one deny that this is engineering, or that the draftsman has the right to call himself an engineer? Thousands of other draftsmen are taking the responsibility just as this man did, but they are not getting paid for it, nor are they recognized as engineers.

PRESENT STATUS OF THE DRAFTSMAN. To distinguish between a tracer, a detailer, a checker, or a designer is an impossibility. A tracer is sometimes a detailer ; a detailer is always an embryo designer and sometimes a checker; a checker is one day checking and the next day designing and the designer may frequently be found tracing his own designs. There is only one line of distinction, and that is, or at least should be, between the tracer who has the brains to become a detailer and the one who has not. Practically every young man who enters the drafting-room is ambitious to advance step by step to what he considers better positions. If this situation is clearly understood it will be seen that if these young men are to learn the art of drafting thoroughly, they must begin at the bottom and learn it all. They must become tracers and learn to make plain lettering and ink a neat drawing. Where then does the "professional tracer" come in? Answer: He does not come in; he goes out. There is no place for him or for girls either who do not intend to progress beyond the mere mechanical work of making a tracing or even the very simple detail work. Girls, by the way, are entering the drafting-room and I do not mean to say they should not, — I would ias soon try to induce the Mississippi River to run uphill. However I believe they should enter on the same terms as boys and receive equal pay for equivalent work.

In order to learn, the beginner must be instructed by competent men and acquire actual experience with the work himself. He must learn and advance, or his place given to some one who will. Since the so-called "professional tracers" are now doing work which is required of students if the latter are to learn properly, then the former should be eliminated from the drafting-room. Furthermore when tracers are paid nearly as much as experienced detailers, as is sometimes the case, this is always a source of discontent in an office. What incentive is there for a young man to go through college or to burn the midnight oil for several years >a,nd then find a tracer, a mere mechanical workman earning but a few dollars less than he does?

THE DRAFTSMAN AND HIS WORK. 21

DRAFTING NOT A TRADE. It is obvious that drafting considered as a business is not a trade because the mechanical skill requisite is of minor importance when compared to the mental work required and actually used. Few realize this most important fact. It is evident that since drafting is not a trade it must be classed as a profession. If it is a profession it can scarcely be called the profession of drafting, for drafting is the foundation of the engineering profession. There is, therefore, only one other view to consider and that is to recognize that drafting is the engineering profession as much as any other work in engineering. This is the correct stand to take. Furthermore, the draftsman has the right to be called an engineer and to be a member of the engineering profession.

There >are many welfare and business problems which must be solved by engineers and first of all is this one of definitions. The terms, engineer and draftsman, must be defined so that every one will know what is meant when the words are used.

Turn to the dictionary and you will find "profession" defined very plainly as "an occupation that involves a liberal education and mental rather than manual labor" ; "engineering" as "the art of designing and constructing engines, public works, roads, etc., etc." ; and "engineer" as "one engaged in engineering". Now this definition of engineer does not conform exactly to common practice, since it is frequently heard in a much more limited sense. However broad-minded engineers do not limit the terminology of the word ; it is done in the class rooms. The public will never understand what an engineer is until engineers can agree among themselves upon a definition. As long as we consider only those who have progressed ias far or farther than we ourselves as being engineers, and as long as we say of the others, "Oh, he is not an engineer," this agreement can never be brought about.

That there must be good and bad, competent and incompetent, engineers until human beings become infallible, seems never to be considered. When this familiar phrase, "He's not an engineer," is heard, the speaker is invariably passing judgment upon his fellow man and we are sufficiently warned of this folly two thousand years ago.

We must emphasize the distinction between the mechanician or engine runner and the engineer proper. Engineering is not a trade, nor the engineer an operator, but >a mental worker, a designer, a builder, etc., and his work a profession. Common practice in engineering considers various kinds of technical men, including inspectors, teachers, efficiency experts, chemists, etc., as belonging to the engineering profession largely because they are not tradesmen and there is no other profession in which to classify them. Draftsmen, surveyors, etc., even rodmen and axemen, should also be included in the profession, provided they have the beginning of a technical education. Since they are in the profession they have the right to be called engineers. Why not let it be understood that they are engineers and end this hypocritical practice of trying to define who is and who is not an engineer? Engineers must broaden out, both in their definitions and vision. Every definition which narrows the terminology of "engineer" and engineering" is open to criticism and will not endure. The words, tracer, detailer, checker, designer and squad-boss, are words which help to cause the confusion and misunderstanding by the public and by engineers. In dentistry we do not talk of "toothpullers", "tooth-fillers", or "crowners", but there are men who do these things and nothing else. They are dentists. The public understands that the work of a dentist includes all such details but people do not understand what a checker or a designer does nor even that the work is connected with engineering. It is not necessary to use such words denoting the kind of work one does, either in or out of the drafting-room. If we want the public to understand our work then we -should make it easier for them to understand. There is only one way so far as a business title goes and that is to use the word, engineer, and no other. Drafting as a business oa»n not be divorced from engineering as a business.

In this book which pertains to the business end of drafting and the welfare of the draftsman, there is no mention of technical subjects or of proper methods of lettering, or of ways to hold the ruling pen, nor is any space taken with the old, familiar tables, all of which may be found in hundreds of other books. Draftsmen are tired of studying them; no doubt they want a change of diet and so this work is "designed" to answer the craving for something different.

Chapter III. Working Conditions

CHAPTER III.

WORKING CONDITIONS.

COMPARISON WITH OTHER WORK. The conditions under which draftsmen work are most unsatisfactory. The attitude seems to be to spend just as little money in this department as possible toward office furniture, space or salaries. The drafting-room being absolutely essential it cannot be dispensed with, but it can be and is made most disagreeable for the draftsmen in a great many places. Drafting should be considered as an overhead expense and not as labor at so much per hour on each contract. I do not mean to say that the draftsman's time should not be charged up to each job, for it should, but that drafting should be considered with the same dignity as engineering, which it properly is. Until drafting is thought of as engineering and engineering is raised to its proper place as the "noblest of professions" the draftsman has little hope of bettering his condition.

A comparison of the equipment of the average drafting-room with other offices is sometimes amusing. A bank, for example, invariably has a magnificent building, marble walls and ceilings, elaborate metal work and burglar-proof vaults, mahogany furniture, splendid rugs, etc., and yet at many of them same mahogany desks are clerks which could be replaced by any intelligent boy with a few weeks' training. The insurance companies are similiarly outfitted and both savor much of that old fable about the spider and the fly. State and Federal offices are frequently fitted out with thousands of dollars worth of furniture and decorations with only a few political ward-healers to occupy them. Large corporations invariably have offices well furnished and equipped.

Consider now the drafting-room even in these same corporations. All too often it is >a crowded, poorly lighted, dirty and dingy room. The furniture for each man consists of one table @ $7.50 and one stool @ $1.25, total $8.75 — normal price. The chief draftsman's desk is about on a par with the rest of the office. A comfortable stool is almost an unheard-of luxury in a drafting-room though they are on the market and sometimes furnished to book-keepers. Carpets or rugs are even more of a luxury but they are furnished for the clerks in the outer office. To furnish good tables, stools, lockers, T-squares, and instruments which go to make the draftsman's work more efficient and agreeable seldom seems to enter the heads of the management. For one class of work a drafting machine would pay for itself in a few months. Again in other cases parallel rules, a set of special curves, a good protractor, a pantagraph, a planimeter, or slide rule would save an incalculable amount of time. How seldom these things are considered !

LIGHTING. One would think that the lighting system of a drafting-room would receive first consideration and it probably would in a new plant built at the present time under competent engineers or architects. However it is a fact that there are hundreds of drafting-rooms which are not fit for a man to work in without artificial light or even with it, as at present installed. Experts on lighting are not consulted though there is ample advice which may be had gratis from the lighting companies and the manufacturers. The proper way is to call in an illumination engineer who is not interested in the sale of any particular kind of lamps. Draftsmen are not capable of judging the proper kind of lights, altho they may have strong opinions, because not one per cent of them ever worked under a correct form of illumination. It is not possible for me to say what is correct because experts aver that every room requires a special treatment. However I can state that one thing which draftsmen should demand is a proper lighting system. A light which is bright, not a spot light, but well diffused. Positively no shadows on the drawing for the eyes are constantly strained when trying to see a line with shadows cast over it. I know of one railroad which refused positively to put in drop lights instead of high ceiling lights in a room in which some fifteen draftsmen worked. Much of the work was tracing and ruinous to the eyes.