Peter Jeffrey Booker (19August 192416April 2011) was a British engineer and technological drawing historian,Patrick Maynard (2005). Drawing Distinctions: The Varieties of Graphic Expression. p. 10. known for his 1963 A History of Engineering Drawing, a seminal work on the history of technical drawing.D. Chilton. "A History of Engineering Drawing by P. J. Booker". in: Technology and Culture. Vol. 6, No. 1, Museums of Technology (Winter, 1965), pp. 128–130.Latour, Bruno. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society. Harvard University Press, 1987.Alder, Ken. Engineering the Revolution: Arms and Enlightenment in France, 1763–1815. University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Life and work Booker was born in Cambridge in August 1924.GOV.uk – Companies House: Peter Jeffrey BOOKERWebb-database Who's Who: August 1924 He received his secondary education at the Sandown Secondary School at the Isle of Wight, and subsequently attended the Royal Naval Artificers Training Establishment, Torpoint at Cornwall.

From 1940 to 1954 he served in the Royal Navy, where he worked in the Ordnance Department. He started on gun mountings, and later worked in gunnery fire control equipment on ships, in workshops and in the drawing office. In 1954 he became assistant secretary at the Institution of Engineering Designers and was representative of the institute on the City St Guilds Advisory Committee on Mechanical Engineering Drawing. Brooker became editor of The Engineering Designer and member of the Newcomen Society.The Chartered Mechanical Engineer: The Journal of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Vol. 10. The Institution, 1954. p. 429.

In the 1950s and 1960s Brooker published most of his work on engineering drawing and its history. He received several rewards for his work, among them the Founder Column awarded by the Institution of Engineering Designers.F. P. Kennett (1964). The Engineering Designer. p. 307 He continued to work at the Institution of Engineering Designers,New Scientist, Vol. 9, no. 223 (23 Feb 1961). p. 489. and in the year 1992–93 was elected director of the institute for one year.

Booked died in Woking, Surrey, in April 2011 at the age of 86.Probate: BOOKER, PETER JEFFERYBOOKER, PETER JEFFREY b. 1924, GRO Reference: DOR Q2/2011 in SURREY (759-1E), Entry Number 504815634Ancestry: Peter Jeffrey Booker (1924–2011)

Work

A History of Engineering Drawing, 1963 In a 1965 review of A History of Engineering Drawing Chilton summarised the intention of this work:

This work is regarded as the standard history of engineering drawing.Carl Mitcham (1994). Thinking Through Technology: The Path Between Engineering and Philosophy. p. 338. Its first chapters deal with:

Introducing shadows and projection The fundamental nature of drawing Representing attributes in drawings Perspective: projection applied to pictures Plans and multi-view drawings Constructional drawings: sun-dialling and stone-cutting Ships and forts: water‐lines, and figured plans, and Plans and multi‐view drawings...Brooker (1965, content)

Another 1978 review revealed more of the content:F. P. Kennett (1978), The Engineering Designer, Volumes 4–6, 1978, p. 454

The second 1979 edition of this work was enlarged and revised and contained 19 chapters.Institution of Engineers (India) (1980), Bulletin of the Institution of Engineers (India). Vol. 30. 1980. p. 20

Pioneers of engineering drawing In A History of Engineering Drawing, Brooker goes more into details about the lives, work and accomplishments of engineering designers. For example, he explained:

The 1978 review of this work also stipulated:

Primary and secondary geometry In A History of Engineering Drawing Booker made the distinction between primary and secondary geometry.John Willats (1997). Art and Representation: New Principles in the Analysis of Pictures. p. 10. As Riley (2010) explained:Riley, Howard. "Drawing as Transformation: From Primary Geometry to Secondary Geometry". XVOL. III Generative Art International Conference. Retrieved December. Vol. 12. 2010.

Inspired on this distinction John Willats in his 1997 Art and Representation. New Principles in the Analysis of PicturesWillats, John. 1997. Art and Representation. New Principles in the Analysis of Pictures. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. defined projection systems in terms of primary and secondary geometry. Pascal Lefèvre (2006) explained:Pascal Lefèvre. "The Construction of Space in Comics". In: Jeet Heer, Kent Worcester ed. (2009). A Comics Studies Reader. p. 158

Selected publications Booker, Peter Jeffrey. Principles and Precedents in Engineering Design. Institute of Engineering Designers, 1962. Booker, Peter Jeffrey. A History of Engineering Drawing. 1963, 1979. Booker, P. J. Written Contribution for Engineering. (1964). Booker, Peter Jeffrey, and W. E. Walters. Three Dimensional Projection Drawing. Model & Allied Publications, 1968, 1985.

Articles, a selection: Booker, Peter J. "Gaspard Monge (1746–1818) and His Effect on Engineering Drawing and Technical Education". Transactions of the Newcomen Society 34.1 (1961): 15–36. Booker, P. J. "Written Contribution Appended to Conference on the Teaching of Engineering Design". Institute of Engineering Designers, London (1964): 3. Booker, Peter Jeffrey, Gerald C. Frewer, and Geoffrey Keith Charles Pardoe. "Project Apollo: The Way to the Moon". New York, New York (United States): Elsevier Scientific Publishing, 8+ 216 p. 1 (1969).

Patents 1979. Patent US4166322 – Rulers for making axonometric projection drawings

References