sheesh guys, One has to live in here to beat you to it!
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Yes, blue prints were used long before the 1900's.
I was rained in at Chinapas, Chihauhua in the 50's. With nothing else to do, I commenced prowling through the records of the Palmarejo Mine - it was defunct then and all of the buildings were falling down, everything had been abandoned. But the title or rights were never abadoned.
The mine had been in a bonanza operation in the 1800's , but was shut down by the revoloution, for which the owers were gratreful since they had been perfoming a bit of a scam game.
The main ore body was almost untouched, they were overselling stock based upon a ficticius production and a huge uneploited ore body..
I found boxes of multiple blue prints and many other milling or mining data.
They had their engineers draw up problem areas, such as bridges, then sent this data to Leitz, Germany who in turn worked the problem out, then made multi-blue prints copies of each of any actual construction details, then returned the blueprints back to the mine in Mexico.
We are spoiled with the net, imagine, they had to send this data to Germany first by mule travel for 3 days to a sailing ship, that may be sailing in a week or so, , then wait for the return by the same method of transportation. At times this could take almost a year.
Incidentally this mine is now a major Silver producer, it has been revitalized.
Tropical Tramp
