h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Most other fields have evolved online tools. Is architecture the same way?

Not necessarily online but computer programs, yes. We don't draw by hand anymore except for making sketches and stuff. This has many advantages as for instance you don't have to draw a whole new plan if you make changes. On the other hand I think all plans are now much more detailed and are also expected to be.

These old tools are interesting and you've done well to keep them together.

My mother-in-law was a scientist and, among her possessions there was a cylindrical slide rule. No-one could work out how to use it!

My mother found them when tidying my grandmother's house after her death. She gave it to me as she thought I'd like it.

very interesting

The people who used to teach courses in architecture could have explained how the tools were used. Not many of those teachers would still be around, if any.

Uh... actually it's not that hard to figure out. There are dividers of different lengths and also tools for taking dimensions/measuring. They still teach that.

Glad to hear it.

I still have mine for drawing circles. I think the split metal pointy things are meant to be used with ink instead of pencil leads, though I never used those. There is a straight slide rule in my desk drawer somewhere. When studying, I was in the first year where they switched to computer aided drawing instead of using the large drawing boards. Not long after that we went from 2D line drawing to 3D solid modeling.

One reason I never even considered following in my dad's footsteps (he was an engineer) is that I can't draw a straight line, even with tools. Then there was my tendency to trance out during trigonometry class...

My dad was a wizard - he once designed a house for someone using a piece of shirt cardboard (from the dry cleaner's), a pencil, a ruler, and a quarter coin. It passed muster with the government agency, and the man got his federal loan. I watched him do it.

That's great, drawing a whole house on cardboard!

Yes, you are right, there is a seperate thingy to attack instead of a pencil for drawing with ink. Today they have attachable holders for pens.

The ones with two needles are used to take measurements or mark (with tiny holes) the same distance again and again on a line.

What I also still have somewhere are my granny's lettering templates. I did also have her furniture templates but they were stolen when I was at university

That's a shame.

My older brother still worked with the lettering templates with ink on calque paper. (He still had that A0 format drawing board with guided rulers taking up half of his bedroom).

All of my father's male relatives were engineers.

No one in my generation has taken that route. I was library/information science. A nephew is in computers.

My parents and in-laws are all teachers, I'm an engineer.

I qualified for teaching, and in a small way I have been able to teach people or at least coach them in some ways. But standing up in front of a class exhausts me. I ran a book discussion group for many years. Everyone learned something there.