In regard to shaded elevations, it may be said that photography has superseded them for the purpose of illustrating completed machines, and but few establishments care to incur the expense of ink-shaded elevations. Shaded elevations cannot be made with various degrees of care, and in a longer or shorter time; there is but one standard for them, and that is that such drawings should be made with great care and skill. Imperfect shaded elevations, although they may surprise and please the unskilled, are execrable in the eyes of a draughtsman or an engineer; and as the making of shaded elevations can be of but little assistance to an apprentice draughtsman, it is better to save the time that must be spent in order to make such drawings, and apply the same study and time to other matters of greater importance.
It is not assumed that shaded elevations should not be made, nor that ink shading should not be learned, but it is thought best to point out the greater importance of other kinds of drawing, too often neglected to gratify a taste for picture-making, which has but little to do with practical mechanics.
Isometrical perspective is often useful in drawing, especially in wood structures, when the material is of rectangular section, and disposed at right angles, as in machine frames. One isometrical view, which can be made nearly as quickly as a true elevation, will show all the parts, and may be figured for dimensions the same as plane views. True perspective, although rarely necessary in mechanical drawing, may be studied with advantage in connection with geometry; it will often lead to the explanation of problems in isometric drawing, and will also assist in free-hand lines that have sometimes to be made to show parts of machinery oblique to the regular planes. Thus far the remarks on draughting have been confined to manipulation mainly. As a branch of engineering work, draughting must depend mainly on special knowledge, and is not capable of being learned or practised upon general principles or rules. It is therefore impossible to give a learner much aid by searching after principles to guide him; the few propositions that follow comprehend nearly all that may be explained in words.
1. Geometrical drawings consist in plans, elevations, and sections; plans being views on the top of the object in a horizontal plane; elevations, views on the sides of the object in vertical planes; and sections, views taken on bisecting planes, at any angle through an object.
2. Drawings in true elevation or in section are based upon flat planes, and give dimensions parallel to the planes in which the views are taken.
3. Two elevations taken at right angles to each other, fix all points, and give all dimensions of parts that have their axis parallel to the planes on which the views are taken; but when a machine is complex, or when several parts lie in the same plane, three and sometimes four views are required to display all the parts in a comprehensive manner.
4. Mechanical drawings should be made with reference to all the processes that are required in the construction of the work, and the drawings should be responsible, not only for dimensions, but for unnecessary expense in fitting, forging, pattern-making, moulding, and so on.
5. Every part laid down has something to govern it that may be termed a "base"—some condition of function or position which, if understood, will suggest size, shape, and relation to other parts. By searching after a base for each and every part and detail, the draughtsman proceeds upon a regular system, continually maintaining a test of what is done. Every wheel, shaft, screw or piece of framing should be made with a clear view of the functions it has to fill, and there are, as before said, always reasons why such parts should be of a certain size, have such a speed of movement, or a certain amount of bearing surface, and so on. These reasons or conditions may be classed as expedient, important, or essential, and must be estimated accordingly. As claimed at the beginning, the designs of machines can only in a limited degree be determined by mathematical data. Leaving out all considerations of machine operation with which books have scarcely attempted to deal, we have only to refer to the element of strains to verify the general truth of the proposition.
Examining machines made by the best designers, it will be found that their dimensions bear but little if any reference to calculated strains, especially in machines involving rapid motion. Accidents destroy constants, and a draughtsman or designer who does not combine special and experimental knowledge with what he may learn from general sources, will find his services to be of but little value in actual practice.
I now come to note a matter in connection with draughting to which the attention of learners is earnestly called, and which, if neglected, all else will be useless. I allude to indigestion, and its resultant evils. All sedentary pursuits more or less give rise to this trouble, but none of them so much as draughting. Every condition to promote this derangement exists. When the muscles are at rest, circulation is slow, the mind is intensely occupied, robbing the stomach of its blood and vitality, and, worse than all, the mechanical action of the stomach is usually arrested by leaning over the edge of a board. It is regretted that no good rule can be given to avoid this danger. One who understands the evil may in a degree avert it by applying some of the logic which has been recommended in the study of mechanics. If anything tends to induce indigestion, its opposite tends the other way, and may arrest it; if stooping over a board interferes with the action of the digestive organs, leaning back does the opposite; it is therefore best to have a desk as high as possible, stand when at work, and cultivate a constant habit of straightening up and throwing the shoulders back, and if possible, take brief intervals of vigorous exercise. Like rating the horse-power of a steam-engine, by multiplying the force into the velocity, the capacity of a man can be estimated by multiplying his mental acquirements into his vitality.