New Drafting Course Offered For Defense

"Engineering Drawing is a vital defense course, and the demand for engineering draftsmen is particularly acute," Charles J. Walsh, demonstrator in Engineering Drawing, emphasized last night in a radio address. "The defense industries desperately need draftsmen to man the expanding arm plants."

The radio address, over a Boston station, was designed to publicize the evening course in advanced Engineering Drawing, sponsored by the University extension, which Walsh will conduct in Pierce Hall beginning March 10. The course is open to high school graduates, both men and women, who have had a year of mechanical drawing.

Course Trains Junior Draftsmen

At the end of the 12-week course, the graduates will be sufficiently trained to qualify as junior draftsmen or tracers. To qualify for the more specialized drafting positions, a good deal of experience as a junior draftsman is usually required. "The need for people trained in basic drafting practice, however, is almost as great, I believe, as for people who have the more specialized training," Walsh said.

Engineering drawing is necessary not only for the draftsman but also for the shopman or machinist if he is to read the engineer's plans easily and intelligently. A mechanic or machinist trained in drafting and structural visualization has a great advantage over the ordinary mechanic, according to Walsh.