Showerthought: I just saw a drawing from 1987 that still had a perfect title block

Honestly, I was scanning some old paper plans for a library archive project in St. Louis last week. I pulled a rolled set for a small factory addition, and the title block was still crisp, no fading at all. The architect's stamp and the date were totally clear, which is wild for pencil on vellum. Has anyone else found old drawings that held up way better than you expected?

3 comments

3 Comments

hugo_schmidt7d ago

My own handwriting fades on a sticky note after a month. How did they get pencil to last half a century? Those old draftsmen must have pressed down with some serious force. Maybe the lead formula was different back then. It puts my chicken scratch to shame, that's for sure.

william_carter3d ago

Wow, that's amazing it held up that well. Hugo_schmidt has a point about the pressure they used, but I wonder about the storage too. Those rolled sets in a dark cabinet are like a time capsule. Was the vellum stored flat or rolled? I've seen rolled ones get brittle, but flat sheets in a big flat file seem to last forever. The environment in that St. Louis library must have been just right, no humidity swings.

ruby4508d ago

Seriously, the old sepia prints are the real survivors. Found a set from 1952 on that thick linen paper, and the ink is darker than some of our laser prints from five years ago. The paper itself is practically indestructible.