Found a 100 year old print in the attic that still had the exact dimensions for the house

I was cleaning out my great uncle's attic last weekend in Cleveland and found this old hand-drawn blueprint from like 1923 for the house he grew up in. The wild part is I measured the foundation walls out back and they matched to within 1/4 inch of what was on that paper. How did they do that with just a pencil and a straightedge back then? Has anyone else ever run across an old print that was way more accurate than you'd expect?

2 comments

2 Comments

haydenj908d ago

That 1/4 inch accuracy is honestly not that surprising for old school draftsmen. If you ever need to digitize it, take a photo with a ruler next to it so you can scale it properly later.

morgan9158d ago

Old school draftsmen could eyeball a 1/4 inch tolerance without even breaking out a scale. My grandpa did blueprints for 30 years and he'd mark adjustments with just a pencil and a straightedge. The ruler trick for digitizing is smart though, a lot of people forget to include a reference when they snap a photo. Throw a coin in the shot too just in case the ruler gets cropped out later.