A drafting machine is a tool used in

technical drawing Technical drawing, drafting or drawing, is the act and discipline of composing drawings that visually communicate how something functions or is constructed. Technical drawing is essential for communicating ideas in industry and engineering ...

, consisting of a pair of scales mounted to form a right angle on an articulated

protractor A protractor is a measuring instrument, typically made of transparent plastic or glass, for measuring angles. Some protractors are simple half-discs or full circles. More advanced protractors, such as the bevel protractor, have one or two sw ...

head that allows an angular

rotation Rotation, or spin, is the circular movement of an object around a '' central axis''. A two-dimensional rotating object has only one possible central axis and can rotate in either a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. A three-dimensional ...

. The protractor head (two scales and protractor mechanism) is able to move freely across the surface of the

drawing board A drawing board (also drawing table, drafting table or architect's table) is, in its antique form, a kind of multipurpose desk which can be used for any kind of drawing, writing or impromptu sketching on a large sheet of paper or for reading a ...

, sliding on two guides directly or indirectly anchored to the drawing board. These guides, which act separately, ensure the movement of the set in the horizontal or vertical direction of the

, and can be locked independently of each other. L-Zeichnen

The drafting machine was invented by Charles H. Little in 1901 (U.S. Patent No. 1,081,758), and he founded the Universal Drafting Machine Company in Cleveland, Ohio, to manufacture and sell the instrument.The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol.36 (1950), p.341. Drafting machines were present in the design offices of European companies since the 1920s. The Encyclopædia Britannica explicitly specifies 1930 as the year this tool was introduced, but an advertisement of "Memorie di architettura pratica" from 1913 places it twenty years before this date—at least in Italy. In the older design sets, the movement of the protractor head was assured by a

pantograph A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line d ...

system that could keep the head in the same

angular Angular may refer to: Anatomy * Angular artery, the terminal part of the facial artery * Angular bone, a large bone in the lower jaw of amphibians and reptiles * Angular incisure, a small anatomical notch on the stomach * Angular gyrus, a region ...

position throughout its range of motion. The arms were balanced by a system of counterweights or springs. Typically, the machine is mounted on a

with a hard and smooth surface, anchored to a base that allows its tilting and lifting. Thus, the realization of a

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayo ...

can be achieved in the most convenient way on a working surface that can be tilted at any angle from horizontal to vertical. There are special versions for A0 double-sized boards, to make large drawings, or copying-boards with background illumination, which have all that is necessary to provide specific support. With the drafting machine one can perform a series of drawing operations that otherwise could only be achieved with a much more complex use of the classic

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long ...

square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90- degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-lengt ...

and

, as, for example, drawing parallel lines,

orthogonal In mathematics, orthogonality is the generalization of the geometric notion of ''perpendicularity''. By extension, orthogonality is also used to refer to the separation of specific features of a system. The term also has specialized meanings in ...

lines, inclined lines according to a preset angle, measurement of

angle In Euclidean geometry, an angle is the figure formed by two rays, called the '' sides'' of the angle, sharing a common endpoint, called the '' vertex'' of the angle. Angles formed by two rays lie in the plane that contains the rays. Angles ...

s, etc. With the development of

computer-aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve ...

(CAD), the use of drafting machines, especially in the professional sector, has drastically declined, supplanted first by pen

plotter A plotter is a machine that produces vector graphics drawings. Plotters draw lines on paper using a pen, or in some applications, use a knife to cut a material like vinyl or leather. In the latter case, they are sometimes known as a cutting pl ...

s, and then by large-format

inkjet printer Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpens ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drafting Machine Visual arts materials Technical drawing tools