We had a nostalgic visit to the National Packard Museum. Nostalgic not because I ever owned a Packard motor car, but because of the old Packard Electric. I did not realize that the company started as Packard Electric making transformers and cable. I only thought of them as making wiring harnesses for cars. For six boring months in 1966 I drew some of those wiring harnesses. But my first week there was spent learning to freehand letter* the GM way. They were still a division of GM in those days. My title was draftsman in those politically incorrect times; drafter became the gender-neutral title later. I doubt that these titles are used today; there are just CAD Operators (CAD=Computer Aided Design).
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- The entrance. We were among the few that found it. In fact, as we left, we were the only ones there.
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- Packard cars were first at a lot of things (click to enlarge – and start slideshow).
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- There were cars there from the “made in Warren” years, but most, like these, were made in Detroit.
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- This is what wiring harnesses looked like in the old days.
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- Wire harnesses got more complicated as more electrical stuff was added.
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- Some of the connectors I drew in the old days.
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- J. W. Packard’s calculator, an arithmometer made by K&E. Same company that made my slide rule.
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- One of the Warren-made cars, a Model C.
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- Mechanical detail for the Model C.
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- Model F.
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- Model F drive train.
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- The museum featured a tribute to pilot Ernie Hall. He took Neil Armstrong for a flight… and trained my brother!
*Technical lettering is the process of forming letters, numerals, and other characters in technical drawing. It is used to describe, or provide detailed specifications for, an object. With the goals of legibility and uniformity, styles are standardized and lettering ability has little relationship to normal writing ability. Engineering drawings use a Gothic sans-serif script, formed by a series of short strokes. Lower case letters are rare in most drawings of machines.
Freehand lettering is done without the assistance of tools. To regulate lettering height, commonly 3 mm (1⁄8-in), guidelines are drawn. [I drew my guidelines with a sharp blue pencil so it would not show up on the blueprint.]
Wikipedia