Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies
Drawger's "Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies" is a delightful place where "tools of the trade that have died or have just about died a slow slow death are cheerfully exhibited." Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)
the latest
latest episodes
I regret to say I have used/know how to use all the things listed. Anyone remember the next step after lead typsetting slugs, the machines that used photosensitive paper and plastic carousels to produce type? At least pens and pencils are still in vogue.
I've used all of these things, and I still set metal and wood type in my garage. I've given up on phototypositor and other phototypesetting techniques though ... too much trouble for too mediocre a result.
digital + photopolymer is the best thing out there for typesetting today, although metal runs a close second.
@ y TheMadLibrarian
Compugraphic EditWriter?
I also have used/know how to use all the things listed. We "graduated" to a Mergenthaler Linocomp, which was one of the various electro-mechanical-optical nightmares #1Themadlibrarian mentions. No memory on the sonofabitch, and we'd have to re-keyboard everything if any one of a number of entertaining events occurred. Misaligned lens, paper wrap around the roller in the processor, image fading. It was a hell I still recall fondly. Time healing all wounds and all that, I guess. The changes that have come about in just a few years is mind blowing, to say the least.
I knew guys who spent literally years learning the craft of film composition with chokes, spreads, etc., and 10-15 years ago you could buy a program for a few hundred dollars, and spend a few weeks, months at the most, learning how to do the same stuff, better.
I won't even get into the 'rule-tape'!!
Pens and pencils still in vogue?
what? what are those? Didn't they use those things back in the 90s?
I guess I've got my own little museum of art supplies. I've still got the box I used in college, along with two left-handed drafting machines and nearly every drafting template known to man. Even some wooden leadholders from before WWII.
Heh, the proportion wheel is a tool for those who have forgotten how to do math.
Sadly, I too own, have used, sold or have taught how to use most of these items.
Everyone loves red litho tape!
Ah yes, the "photo wheel". My J-school editing class spent a whole day on how to use this -- which is just a circular slide rule. Apparently journalists simply aren't capable of dividing x1 over x2 and dividing y1 by that to get y2. Math is hard. (And modern journalists are used to getting their answers from somewhere else instead of figuring them out on their own.)
Oh god, the memories that collection brings back... I used to be convinced that film negatives were proof of the stranger aspects of quantum physics, because it seemed that the pinholes I was opaquing were caused by squinting at the film hard enough.
Great to see these things! And to see others remember them to...I still have a 'tool box' full of long forgotten gadgets.
I believe using these 'hands on' tools sets us old designers apart. In a good way. If you've ever inked a clean flow chart or similar graphic with rapidiograph pens and triangles with an 'inking lip' then you should be proud!
I've had a couple of interns this summer in a graphics program from the university and I must say their lack of knowledge and skills is obvious. Way to much relying on the computer to think for them. I know that isn't the way of all young designers though. There is some real talent out there.
But I feel kind of good knowing that we did things with these tools at one time that were harder to use, but yielded nice results.
And I know FOR SURE that amberlith is very flammable!
When I was in college (pre photoshop) I worked for the newspaper. One day we had to make an ad consisting of text warped to fit onto the pages of an illustrated book.
I remember how my boss took some typeset copy, passed it through a waxing machine to make the back tacky, then glued it to an empty Clorox bottle which he then tipped into perspective and photographed with a stat camera.
The stat came out with the text warped-looking. He cut that out, waxed it, and slapped it down on the illustrated book page.
I used to get such a kick out of his analog solutions.
I was super design-y nerdy in high school in the 70's. (even more than now)
My regular pen back then was a Rapidograph. I used to have to keep picking at the tip to free the latest paper clog.
My first job* after dropping out of grad school for the first time was as a proofreader in a small graphic arts shop, where I got to do such fun things as set Terry Dolan's business card and discuss sex education with Phyllis Schlafly. (The owner was a self-proclaimed Objectivist whose most memorable experience was meeting Rand on her deathbed.**) During the few years I spent there, I became pretty darn handy with most of the tools pictured here. My favorite weapon, though, was an incredibly complex grid the owner created and had photoprinted onto a clear overlay. In addition to servicing rightwing blowhards, the shop did a lot of 6- and 8-sheet NCR forms for medical labs, where each page varied slightly from the others; the grid was the only was I had to ensure registration from page to page.
Fortunately, though, after a couple of years I became an editor of periodicals for music educators, where I was able to convince the organization to replace their outdated Lexitron word processor with the latest technology: IBM PCs linked with thin-coax Ethernet. And my work there eventually led me to a position with Telenet, where I was finally able to build a quiver of talents and skills to last a lifetime: Breaking down a 3270 BIND packet; troubleshooting ZMODEM over X.25; shattering the 640Kb limit with a virtual memory implementation of my own design, coded in Turbo Pascal....
Good-bye, obsolescence!
__________
* First real job, that is, not counting a brief engagement as a Dancing Tomcat in the Crystal Room of the Cat's Meow II.
** Note: If one has a choice, it is advisable not to accept employment from a devotee of Ayn Rand.
Yeah, "forgotten" is definitely the wrong description. This gallery is pretty much a catalog of tools I currently use in my studio.
Drawing is funny -- you don't need any particular tools in order to make a drawing (you can use your finger to draw in the sand on a beach, for instance) but once you get into using (or making!) specific tools, especially if you lean towards technical drawing, things get fethishized really fast.
Most of these things are either within a few 10's of feet from me or in the store room downstairs. I think they finally unplugged the waxer last Octover when they took the light tables out to make room in our composing dept. I saw a Kroy machine a few weeks ago & thought about taking it since no one here is ever going to use it again. I'm torn: the old stuff LOOKS so cool, and it's tangible stuff. On the other hand, making perfect stencils on a laser engraver is massively rewarding.
I snapped up a fresh spool of linetape (1pt) a few years ago just so I could show it to people in 20 years or so and ask them what they thought it might be for.
Haven't seen a non-repro pen in ages.
I learned the trade in the late 70s, so I went from using a gestetner and seeing the first generation of ancient photocopy machines in high school, learning on a compugraphic machine that would set two lines of type at a time.
Interesting that that whole realm of technology (phototypesetting) was the equivalent of the 8-track.
I had a friend not too many years before who used to fish ads (which were made of a different alloy) out of a pool of molten lead when they melted down plates.
Also, I remember when the first simple calculators came out for over $100 each.
I have at least a quarter of these and expect to use them in the future. For architectural drawings, for example, CADD is great for a full set of drawings, but hand-drafting is much faster for a small set such as a room remodel.
Funny.
I have that exact proportion wheel in my briefcase, which looks a lot like that one in the center - except with Air Singapore transfer stickers on it instead of the Marvel Comics stickers...
The inter-changable letter ink stamper - of which I have two - is at my desk at home.
They're missing the orange/red dunce-cap cover for the can of diluted paper/rubber cement, so you can keep a paint brush standing in the can.
/We were going to start a religion with the pick-up as our god. I still have mine.
Got it... got it... got it...
Where's the silkscreen kit in a suitcase?
In my many years of pencil drafting, I was so thrilled with my electric eraser! I used the sandpaper-on-a-stick to sharpen the eraser, and I could hollow out a period! I've worn out many sets of Kohinoor rapidograph pens, doing Patent drawings and technical illustrations.
Just when I was getting good at drafting, even cool handwriting, AutoCAD came along. Don't get me wrong; I'm not going back, but drafting doesn't hold to the standards it used to keep. I guess I miss that most- it was craftsmanship and an art form.
Thanks for running this, Dave.
Proportion wheels are still used at Kinkos...er FedExOffice
I use proportion or scale wheels - excellent for photocopier based work.
And #1: Bromides! I heart the bromides!
Working at an antiquated printshop gave me the redundant education of a lifetime.
Thanks to all of you here at boingboing for digging my Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies at Drawger.com! I've been a big fan of your blog for quite some time now.
ow the good old days.. when the only screen that was important was a silk one and you had to rubber out grumbling if you mistaked a 2H with a 2B, instead of CTRL+Z. Although I mostly use computer now I'm sure old ways give better result as you dont have a choise to try out 396 different pre-set posibilities of for example outlines. Take it or leave it (and start all over again) now thát's the spirit!
I sell drafting supplies to engineers and architects and still sell some of these things. I laugh when someone buys a proportion wheel - don't you already have a calculator?
I had someone ask if I had a drafting machine in stock. My thought was "You may be able to order parts for a Model A Ford but no way is your local Ford dealer keeping them in stock."
proportion wheels are FANTASTIC for comparing the volume and price of comparable products when you want to get the best value in the grocery store!!!
as fast as a calculator and you have a visualization of amounts above and below the target numbers.
bulky tho..
I agree about the proportion wheel being better than a calculator. When a customer brings in a photo or artwork that they want enlarged or reduced to fit a standard size frame, especially when the original is NOT a standard size, there is nothing like being able to see how much to "nudge" in one direction of the other while visualizing crop, etc.
I own a digital print shop and I use my wheel every day!