Review of the Book Engineering Drawing by I. M. Kholmogorov
Abstract Generated abstract
This review evaluates I. M. Kholmogorov’s Engineering Drawing as a concise introductory manual addressing a perceived gap in technical education literature. It argues that existing drawing textbooks are often too extensive, costly, and advanced for beginners, while Kholmogorov’s short volume presents essential requirements with clarity, well chosen examples, and no unnecessary material. The reviewers recommend the booklet both for novice students and young instructors, suggesting that its clear standards could promote greater uniformity and improved teaching in technical schools. They also propose that future editions include a chapter on the formation of machine part shapes to better connect descriptive geometry with machine-building drawing.
Full Text
Review of the manual by Adjunct Professor I. M. Kholmogorov:
“ENGINEERING DRAWING.”
A deficiency has long been felt in the technical literature: the lack of a brief systematic manual on engineering drawing for students embarking upon this subject.
It is true that there are quite a few very extensive manuals on drawing (Netyksa, Riedler, and others), but such manuals are likewise little accessible to students both in price and in content. In fact, all these manuals contain much material and many instructions that can be assimilated only by persons already sufficiently familiar with the foundations of engineering drawing; for beginners, however, a large part of such instructions may be wasted, while amid the mass of material offered in the book something quite essential may also be missed by the beginner. Unfortunately, most textbooks for higher schools are also written in the same spirit and overlook the old, but always just, measure: non multa, sed multum.
I. M. Kholmogorov’s booklet, “Engineering Drawing,” in this respect represents, against the background of our instructional literature intended to guide students, a very happy exception.
Conciseness of exposition, and at the same time soundness of the propositions, clarity and ease of understanding—thanks to the very successfully chosen illustrations and examples—give this little book the character of a very valuable manual for beginners, who will find in it everything essential and nothing superfluous.
With all these qualities, the size of the little book (48 pp.) is very small, and its price is more than affordable (50 kopecks).
It should also be noted that I. M. Kholmogorov’s brochure is a very useful reference book for young instructors of drawing as well, since in it the requirements for the execution of drawings are clearly established, requirements which at present are held in great—
of the majority of higher technical schools, a clear formulation of these requirements, set forth in I. M. Kholmogorov’s brochure, may contribute to greater uniformity and to the improvement of the teaching of drawing in technical schools—this subject being of the highest importance.
While giving due credit to the content of I. M. Kholmogorov’s textbook Machine-Building Drawing, one might wish that, in subsequent editions of this textbook, it be supplemented with a chapter “On the Formation of the Shapes of Machine Parts,” which would serve as a connecting link between descriptive geometry and machine-building drawing.
Tomsk,
1 June 1911.
S. P. Gomelya and N. V. Gutovsky.