3 ms·

In the first picture, why are they all wearing lab coats?

• jacquesm 3y ago
  Drafting floor attire. When I was in EE we had to wear the same when in drafting class. This was in 1982.
  • fbdab103 3y ago
    Was there a technical reason (minimize potential smearing? tearing of the paper?)? Or was it more symbolic attire? Would management wear it?
    • 15457345234 3y ago
      Mostly so you don't ruin your clothes with indelible substances
    • jacquesm 3y ago
      There is this thing called analine ink, this is mostly a historical thing nowadays but in the early days of professional drafting in the industrial age it was used quite a bit and besides being nasty (poisonous) it is also pretty much indelible, what's stained stays stained, no matter how much you try to wash it out. https://psap.library.illinois.edu/advanced-help/paper-unbound-architectural-aniline https://psap.library.illinois.edu/advanced-help/paper-unboun... So I suspect the overclothing had not so much a cool lab coat vibe as well as a protect-my-valuable-cloting-underneath role. Even later drafting inks (such as in the RotRing pens that we used to use) is pretty good at staining stuff. I used to absolutely suck at drafting (my friend Jeroen at the time was an absolute master at it), I just didn't have the patience for it. And more than once I managed to foul up my 'smock' by moving too fast on a piece of work that wasn't dry yet. I still have some of my vellum from back then as well as a very early attempt at plotting using the computer for a sail maker using a hand-built plotter. That was much harder than it may seem to be today on account of it being hard to find something that could drive the pen without any slippage (this was just when Kevlar backed toothed belts became available commercially but they were still hideously expensive). But the idea that I could produce half decent drawings using the computer was an amazing skill to have.