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Old 12th Apr 2021, 7:15 pm   #1
Chris55000
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Default Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

OfHi!

I have attached a picture from my 1960 book, "Advance Science Master's Handbook" by Ivan L. Muter, and any afficiando of "Camm's Comics" will recognise that this is an absolutely classic Newnes style of drawing from the 1950s, altho' the book isn't published by them!

I would love to replicate this exact style of drawing – I can get near to most of it, but the one bit I can't duplicate is the way the very thin line used for the anode circuit coil blends into the thicker general circuit lines in a smooth curve either side!

Can anyone suggest how Newnes's Draughtsmen achieved this effect please?

Chris Williams
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Old 13th Apr 2021, 10:00 am   #2
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

I'd suggest it's done by careful placement of their circular drawing template.
Looks like overlapping part circles for the coil and with a slight movement of the template sideways you'd achieve the thin to thick line.
That how I'd do anyway.

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Old 13th Apr 2021, 10:36 am   #3
M0FYA Andy
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

I love that style of drawing, elegant and so much clearer to read than modern computer-generated rubbish.

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Old 13th Apr 2021, 11:27 am   #4
John M0GLN
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

They might have used something like a Rotring style ink pen with different size nibs and with a lot of practice blended the lines in, I seem to remember they started at 0.1mm, I've just just looked up in Wikipedia and they came in the following sizes, I used a few as a draughtsman in the 70's.

"A full set of pens would have the following nib sizes: 0.10, 0.13, 0.18, 0.25, 0.35, 0.50, 0.70, 1.0, 1.4, and 2.0 mm"

John
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Old 13th Apr 2021, 12:23 pm   #5
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

When using drawing ink on tracing paper or cloth, it is possible to make corrections such as removing ends of lines which have over-run, or even complete lines, by carefully scraping away the excess with a scalpel blade, preferably a rounded one like a Swann-Morton No. 10. That technique could have been used to create smooth transitions. The drawings would no doubt have been made on an enlarged scale and reduced for publication, which would have made any corrections and amendments easier to make and less visible in the final publication.

Last edited by emeritus; 13th Apr 2021 at 12:35 pm. Reason: typos
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Old 13th Apr 2021, 7:04 pm   #6
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

Varying nib pressure?
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Old 13th Apr 2021, 8:30 pm   #7
Ed_Dinning
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

Not with a Rotring, the proper draughtsman's pen

Ed
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Old 13th Apr 2021, 9:05 pm   #8
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

I use a Leroy lettering set, I have quite a few text and valve electronics stencils for it. The set comes with ink pens of 10 different widths. I don't use it often, I'm not skilled at using it! I don't know the age of the set but someone has written Feb 4 '35 on the instructions in the lid. I have a box of draughtsman's drawing instruments, quite fun to play with but it's a nightmare if you make a mistake!
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Old 13th Apr 2021, 9:39 pm   #9
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

And it is a nightmare if you forget to clean them well after work. If ink dries in the Rotring drawing channel, the tiny wire inside will "freeze" and the whole pen is headed towards the bin.
My granddad used to have lots of these (working on architect's tasks) and even after the usual discussions with customers some pens (mostly the .25) had become sticky and he would start blaming the inventors ...

Regards, Joe
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Old 13th Apr 2021, 10:00 pm   #10
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

A close look at the diagram at interest suggests that the straight thick line is not tangential to the thinner, curved coil line where the two abut. Maybe it is somewhere in the range of 30 to 45 degrees away from the tangent. If so, then the effectively oblique section through the curved line at the point of the abutment would be wider than the cross-section of the line itself, perhaps approaching the width of the thick line sufficiently closely that the difference is rendered small enough that it is not easily seen.


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Old 13th Apr 2021, 10:08 pm   #11
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

When I do calligraphy ,its down to pen nibs for line size but if you add a very little bit of oil paint white very little just to lighten the black will make it stand out.
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Old 13th Apr 2021, 11:08 pm   #12
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

They will have used stencils, and may have worked at a large scale, photo-reduced to the print size.

Rotring ot Uno pens are more easily compatible with stencils than nib type pens.

The biggest contributor to the quality was care and time. Substances in short supply these days. A second factor is arty people now looking at a magazine page and deciding that the circuit diagrams need to be much smaller and less bold in order to 'not upset the balance of the page' An engineer would make them as large as necessary in order to be clear, because they contain the majority of the information.

David
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Old 14th Apr 2021, 12:45 pm   #13
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

Re dried up Rotring pens, I remember one of the 1970's hobby mags having a DIY ultrasonic cleaner project. It was mentioned that the one they had built had fixed a dried up 0.1mm Rotring nib.
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Old 14th Apr 2021, 1:19 pm   #14
Craig Sawyers
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

If you scan through this https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/393635/1/82032212.pdf to look at the diagrams, I did all of those with Rotring pens, lettering stencils, a compass than held a rotring pen and a flexicurve. And some very careful freehand.

They were all done full scale, with no reduction.

Craig
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Old 14th Apr 2021, 5:40 pm   #15
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Default Re: Vintage Diagram Drawing Techniques?

Dried Rötring can always be cleaned with a weak solution of caustic soda - as a circuit draughtsman many years ago, I'd sometimes find that one of my pens had dried and it was a matter of a long soak, then dismantle it and soak again before a rinse in lots of water. Of course, putting the wire back into a 0.18 pen is not for the faint-hearted....and I'm glad I never tried a smaller one.
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