Schematic Symbol Stamps
October 1953 Radio-Electronics

October 1953 Radio-Electronics [Table of Contents] Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early electronics. See articles from Radio-Electronics, published 1930-1988. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.

Even in this time of readily available computers (including your smartphone) and printers, having a set of rubber stamps for common electronics symbols would be pretty handy; there are some Neanderthals among us who still use pencil and paper on occasion*. Simpler symbols like resistors and capacitors are easy enough to sketch by hand, but something like a dual gate MOSFET with diode protection can take some time to produce legibly. Common connector types like the DB signal/power series and some RF kinds (BNC, SMA, etc.) would be useful, as would a set of oft-used logic gates for the digital designers. The set shown here in a 1953 edition of Radio-Electronics magazine includes a handful of vacuum tube types which would have taken some time to draw by hand, and a few other symbols. If you go into an arts and crafts store, you will find a large variety of rubber stamps, so they are still popular. An ink pad is needed, but those are very inexpensive. 

* Myself included

Schematic Symbol Stamps

Here's an unusually handy gadget for the technician, engineer, or hobbyist who isn't an expert draftsman but who wants to draw neat schematics. It's a set of 12, 1¼ x 1¼-inch clear-plastic blocks engraved with the basic component symbols that make up practically all electronic circuit diagrams. All you have to do is ink them lightly on an ordinary stamp pad and press them on the paper to produce perfect tube diagrams, resistors, or other common circuit elements. The set has five tube stamps, covering standard types from diode to pentagrid converter; a fixed resistor and a potentiometer; fixed and variable capacitors; a basic inductor stamp which can be repeated and inverted as required for transformers or coupled circuits; a contact-rectifier symbol; and a stamp for headphones. [This latter one will probably get relatively little use, and possibly the manufacturer (Precise Measurements Co.) should substitute a more common symbol such as a speaker, line plug, or a transistor.]

Precise Measurements Co., 942 Kings Highway, Brooklyn 23, N. Y.  

Posted November 12, 2020