WHAT HAPPENED ?

Look at the title of the drawing shown here. I think you will agree with me it looks odd. It looks as though the words are misspelled and run together. Look at the lower left hand corner and you see the marks of the four men who were responsible for producing this drawing. That is right – four men seemingly did not notice, or purposely choose to overlook the mess-of-a-tittle on the drawing. However, maybe things are not as they seem. Sure enough, a closer look reveals a barely discernible dot after the first three letters, ie., “CYL.”. Notice also the very narrow spaces after the “D” and “R”. These change everything! What I at first thought was “CYLANDRESERVOIRSUPPORT”  is now seen  to be a barely acceptable rendition of “CYL. AND RESERVOiR  SUPPORT” . Now, what happened? I suspect this is an example of a  classic failure-to-plan-ahead problem. The draftsman started the lettering too close to the margin and by the time he realized his  error, in an effort to save the lettering already laid down, he crowded the rest. Two banal thoughts come to mind: “You get what you get.” and “What ever works – works!”. I do admire the level of craftsmanship of the lettering however.

About THE OLD MACHINIST

I am 89 years old and was married for 66 years. My wife passed away in 2016. I am a retired engineer and spent 35 years developing INS gyroscopes. I was a High School mentor in physics, a mountaineer, a model builder, a machinist and I have a degree in Physics. My interests include railroad history and photography, science history, cosmology, interesting people, and old engineering drawings. I place a high value on my friendships. I enjoying my life and I try look forward with a sense of anticipation and curiosity about what my future has in store for me.

Posted on December 17, 2011, in ART AND CRAFTSMANSHIP OF THE DRAFTSMAN, TRIVIA FROM THE UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD DRAWING COLLECTION, UNION PACIFIC RAILROAD HISTORY IN DRAWINGS, UNUSUAL DRAWINGS IN THE UPRR DRAWING COLLECTION and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink. Leave a comment.

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