Antique Blueprint Drawings. Staten Island Ferry and Wacky War Machines! We can thank Alphonse Politevin for inventing the blueprint drawing in 1861. He determined a chemical (gerro-gallate) was light sensitive. It turns blue when exposed! These splendid examples come from a collection bound by staples. The group collects numerous transportation examples from the 1920s. One shows the Staten Island Ferry (which I recognize from the three times I visited Staten Island (in 24 years) while living in Manhattan. Others reveal cockamamie war machines and a motorcycle with a picnic basket. Let's go motoring! As you can see, the technique wasn't perfect…still it was the primary technique for copying and sharing diagrams for decades.
Untitled book of blueprint images (amateur?) circa 1920. Collection Jim Linderman
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