The drawing device or analogue computer for doing transformations on a drawing was based upon a pantograph. It was able to represent directly measurable quantites and the results could be replicated. Ordinarily, a pantograph was used for copying a plane figure to a desired scale, consisting of styluses mounted on four jointed rods in the form of a parallelogram with extended sides.

I did a variation where I altered the way the device did the change in scale such that my original drawing was transformed in an X or Y direction. I also was able to reverse the orientation of the source drawing. I first made a line drawing interpretation of a famous artist's work. At one end of the pantograph device I traced the line drawing.

Between my end of the extended sides and the end with the ink pen, I altered the behavior of the rods to achieve the transformations. These drawings were made in 1963 the year before I discovered the potential of the digital computer and a graphics output device.

Extract by Charles Csuri

Last edited on 2006.10.08 22:27