City of Armadale - History House > Records

SET ANGLE & DISTANCE TEMPLATE

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Overview

Orange opaque plastic template with 10 slots of different sizes. Each slot has different numbers for calculating. Black text along bottom of template [Rotring Art 840.642 1976 Kreisbogen R 75-1000 Made in Germany].

Historical information

This template/drawing tool was used by Jurgen Gossman in the 1980s and 1990s when he was a town planner and later a member of the planning department in the City of Armadale. These tools were used to create hand drawn technical plans for subdivisions, drainage systems, roads and other engineering tasks. In the mid to late 1990s the need to use these tools was slowly replaced by computer programs. Staff would have been trained in how to use these tools as they were gaining their engineering degrees.
A circle curve template, radii from 75-1000mm. The edges of the template enable drawings of circule curves of any desired length. It is part of its Arts series, where 'Kreisbogen' translates to 'circular arc'. As computer aided drafting programmes grew in popularity, most notably with the rise of CAD, manual drawing implements such as the French curve gradually fell out of popularity. Rotring (stylized: rOtring) was a German manufacturing company that was established in 1928. They initially specialised in writing implements and expanded into technical drawing tools circa 1967. The company was famous for their numerous pen technologies, including the multipen (multi-coloured mechanical pencil). The brand is currently owned by Newell Brands after its acquisition in 1998. Their vintage products have gained a cult following.
Since the establishment of local governments across Western Australian in 1871, they have been responsible for the designing and construction of local roads and drains. They also quickly became responsible for town planning, meaning staff with the skills to create accurate drawings have always been needed. The tool represents a manual skill that was essential for council staff who worked in the planning department that has now been replaced by computer programs.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-33-COA2015.16

Themes

People
Social History

Material

Plastic

Width

116 mm

Height or length

280 mm

Inscriptions and markings

[Rotring Art 840.642 1976 Kreisbogen R 75-1000 Made in Germany]

Keywords

Statement of significance

This object is part of a collection of technical drawing tools that were used to create highly accurate and detailed hand drawn technical plans. These tools have now been replaced with computer programs and the skills required to use this collection is slowly being lost.

Comparative significance criteria

Interpretive capacity

Rare or representative

Well provenanced

City of Armadale - History House

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