Reminds me of process I went through to create the charts for my humble grad thesis (1990-ish), by hand, with letter templates and one very expensive rotring pen. Then would transfer the figures to transparencies as backup for my defense. The real presentation was done using a slide projector (this was cutting edge back then, like over-the-top). Yes, took actual photos of my charts..
I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
111–118 of 118 posts
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#112I held the role of (land) surveying draftsman, during the early 2000s years when the surveying profession was partway through the transition between manual drawings and digital processes.
Being a young man then, I was our offices champion of new technology, but years of legacy projects still being tied off meant I had no choice but to learn and practice many of the manual skills.
So my job was a weird mix of pushing everybody into the cutting edge of tech, then having to go and do some 50-100+ year old processes using special pens and papers and even chemicals.
For example, the look up the 'diazo machine' -style of copier. Then imagine going into a small room with an armful of 30 x A1-sized engineering plans, and standing next to this machine for 2 hours slowly feeding in each page while surrounded by ammonia fumes. These days, the Wikipedia page says : "When making multiple copies of an original no more than four or five copies can typically be made at a time, due to the build-up of ammonia fumes, even with ventilation fans in the duplication room", but back then the working reality was more like "Junior staff member! I need four copies of these! ".
Much cooler was the Houston Instruments pen plotter. A machine whose vacuum bed (think of air hockey) held the paper down while rollers ratcheted it back and forth at high speed, and a robotic pen arm 'printed' out a plan by physically drawing it with pens. It automatically changes to different pens when it needs different line thicknesses (or even colours). All done at such a whirlwind of organised precision, it was a joy to watch.
Another aspect of the manual age was the notion of Originals, or Master Copies. That is, for important documents, there'd be a master copy printed out on high grade stock - often archival grade, multi-layered Mylar or similar, for stability and durability. It could be hard work when a project made a late change, because at worst you might find yourself having to (e.g.) manually remove and extremely-carefully redraw an entire table of figures on a master plan. Sometimes just because row 1 of that table had changed such that the rest had to be moved down. The removal involved caaarrrefully buffing the ink off the page using a rotating electric eraser. If you put a hole in the plan by rubbing too hard on one spot, god help you. Doing that, then having to get 5 different signatures from high people in various offices redone on a new master copy, while a large project could be held up for weeks while delays and interest and costs accrue, would be considered a fairly notable faux pas.
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#113Hi, the irony of spending 50 hours on something specifically designed to communicate quickly is not lost on me. Would love to see a time-lapse.
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#114I like the article (lost art, indeed!) --- please consider using a proportional font, however... fixed-width fonts have lower readability.
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#115I held the role of (land) surveying draftsman, during the early 2000s years when the surveying profession was partway through the transition between manual drawings and digital processes. Being a young man then, I was our offices champion of new technology, but years of legacy projects still being tied off meant I had no choice but to learn and practice many of the manual skills. So my job was a weird mix of pushing…
I really enjoyed reading this. I wonder where the master copies ended up. Storage? Landfill? I hope some are preserved and hung on the wall.
The pen plotter sounds phenomenal. I've used some modern budget friendly ones - but don't think they compare to what you describe here.
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
This takes me back, as well as some of the replies to your post. I still have most of my drafting tools from high school, including eraser shields, etc. one thing I didn't see you mention, and would help with dingy vellum, is a pouch with eraser granules you squeeze to put a thin layer of dust on your drawing. This will pick up excess graphite as you slide your t-square or parallel over the drawing.
I used one of these bizarre pouches as a gentle final pass to clean up drawings. The graphite "smear" from the t-square happened with every drawing - thanks for sharing this top. Before starting a new drawing I would wipe down the tools to start fresh!
When I learned, we were told to keep that dust on the drawing the whole time rather than just the end. We always had a small dusting brush nearby to sweep it off as it got dirty.
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#117Amazing process (such patience in this day and age!), and special thanks for sharing links to the data viz books! Tufte was my gateway too but I didn’t think to look into books on technical sketching, engineering drawing, and draftsmanship. Love hand-drawn viz, recently I’ve been looking at the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) and they have a great collection of all their reports,…
This is exactly what I hoped for when writing this article. The "Atlas de statistique graphique de la ville de Paris" from 1889 has stunning hand drafted data visuals I may have never seen unless you shared. Thank you for making an account and adding to this catalog of resources about data viz. I plan to add this to the list in my next update.
You're very welcome! So happy to discuss and share all this together, such an underrated topic in my opinion... Looking forward to your next update.
This whole thing has got me going down the rabbit hole of looking at different countries' archives, here are some from the United States (also in 1889 for the fun of comparison):
- Progress Map for 1889, Cape Fear River Below Wilmington, North Carolina: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/518257160?objectPage=2 - Statistics relating to the Canal around "The Cascades," Columbia River Falls https://catalog.archives.gov/id/501103295?objectPage=2
I tried looking at the British and Irish national archives but couldn't find online images/PDFs of maps and charts, seems like they're for in-person consultation only.
And one more French one from 1906 for kicks because it's so ambitious. Years + bars per year, mapped onto Paris, per company, then split into 2 views (total passengers vs. average passengers per kilometre). Wow. Mouvement de la circulation à l'intérieur de Paris、1860-1900 (map from 1906): https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bd6t5253796z/f81
Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph
#118Amazing process (such patience in this day and age!), and special thanks for sharing links to the data viz books! Tufte was my gateway too but I didn’t think to look into books on technical sketching, engineering drawing, and draftsmanship. Love hand-drawn viz, recently I’ve been looking at the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) and they have a great collection of all their reports,…
Thanks for the link to this archive. A very welcome contribution very a propos in relation to the article. An amateur of old hand drawn maps (Michelin road, and older).
Happy to share! Goodness now that you mention Michelin road maps I didn't realize how classy even just the covers all look. http://cartesmich.free.fr/chronologie_a.php
And those maps... https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0308569100374714...