Our decision

However, the father of one member of our group is an industrial engineer. He has helped us to specify what this kit contains. He knows what it is because one of the subjects you have to do if you choose to be an industrial engineer is technical drawing. Plus, he has even used the material inside this kit when he was studying.

He has told us that it is a ruling pen. Now, you may think that a ruling pen is just a pen, however, it isn't. A drawing pen is a sharp object which is no longer used as it has been replaced by technology but very useful when technology did not play such an important role in our life.

The first image is a ruling pen. The second image is our object. As you can see it's pretty much the same object even though our kit seems to be a bit more older (it's now our task to try and discover the time in which it was made)

Ruling pen

The ruling pen is an old drawing tool used to draw lines with ink or other liquids used to draw. It allows tracing lines of different widths using the screw which provides adjustment

How do ruling pens look like nowadays?

This is what ruling pens look like now. As you can see, they have changed everything in their aspect.

1. Before, ruling pens had a screw to regulate the width of the ink line, however, nowadays, there are different types of pens depending on the width that you want (so they don't need any screw)
2. Before, they were much less accurate than now as before you had to adjust the width of the line with the screw, however, nowadays, you have different tip for the pen so that it's not an approximate width.
3. Before, they were made of a metallic material, however, nowadays, they are made of plastic, maybe so that they don't oxidize.

Sizes

Ruling pens are classified by their diameter (in millimetres). We will explain it using the next image:

For example, 0.18 represents 18% of a millimetre, 0.25 is 25% of a millimetre, 0.35 is 35% of a millimetre and so on. The smallest tips are about 0.2 and 0.09. People normally use Chinese ink with technical drawing pens.




Our box

Our box also has some rulers, a protractor... These are also instruments to draw and are used in technical drawing.

• A ruler is an instrument used in geometry, technical drawing, printing... to measure distances (usually in centimetres) or to draw straight lines.
• A protractor is a measuring instrument that measures angles in degrees so they can be used in a wide variety of contexts but mainly in engineering and geometry lessons in schools.

Ruler and protractor in our box (above)

 

Ruler and protractor nowadays (above)