Blueprint: A blast from the past

We have all heard of the phrase "this is a blueprint for success," but have you ever seen an actual architectural blueprint, or wondered how it came to be ingrained in our everyday vocabulary? These days, computer-aided drawing has completely taken over the architecture and engineering professions and traditional blueprints are no longer used, but our interest was renewed when a member of KDG came across an old blueprint (or so she thought; continue reading below to find out if this really was a blueprint) in Who Gives A SCRAP, also known as Colorado Springs' Creative Reuse Community Center. From the almost illegible Revisions List on the Title Block, we could tell that it was drawn in 1985 by an S. McMillan, titled "Country Club Maples Townhomes."
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From Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
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blueprint (noun)
1: a photographic print in white on a bright blue ground or blue on a white ground used especially for copying maps, mechanical drawings, and architects' plans
2: something or someone resembling a blueprint (as in serving as a model or providing guidance)
"… few foundations have taken a similar investing route, so there was no blueprint to follow."
"He was an anomaly to the rap world when he arrived, but today he is the blueprint for a generation."
especially : a detailed plan or program of action
"a blueprint for success"

From Wikipedia.com:
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"A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842. The process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited number of copies. It was widely used for over a century for the reproduction of specification drawings used in construction and industry. Blueprints were characterized by white lines on a blue background, a negative of the original. Color or shades of grey could not be reproduced. The process is obsolete, largely displaced by the diazo whiteprint process, and later by large-format xerographic photocopiers. It has almost entirely been superseded by digital computer-aided construction drawings."​

Intrigued, we read a little bit about the chemistry behind blueprints on the website How Stuff Works: "The drawing to be copied, drawn on translucent paper, is placed against paper sensitized with a mixture of ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide. The sensitized paper is then exposed to light. Where the areas of the sensitized paper are not obscured by the drawing, the light makes the two chemicals react to form blue. The exposed paper is then washed in water. This produces a negative image, with the drawing appearing in white against a dark blue background."

It surprised us to know that the traditional blueprint referred to a negative image with a blue background, and the drawing we have from 1985 with blue lines on a white background is, in fact, called a whiteprint.
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From Wikipedia.com:
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"In the early 1940s, cyanotype blueprint began to be supplanted by diazo prints, also known as whiteprints. This technique produces blue lines on a white background. The drawings are also called blue-lines or bluelines. [These] remained in use until they were replaced by xerographic print processes.

It is a contact printing process that accurately reproduces the original in size, but cannot reproduce continuous tones or colors. Whiteprinting replaced the blueprint process for reproducing architectural and engineering drawings because the process was simpler and involved fewer toxic chemicals. A blue-line print is not permanent and will fade if exposed to light for weeks or months, but a drawing print that lasts only a few months is sufficient for many purposes."​

​Because of the chemical constituents of the whiteprint that makes it sensitive to light, you can see in the above picture that the dimensions added on after-the-fact using an ink pen has stayed clearer and crisper than the blue-lines after 39 years.

This is an incredible reminder of the Scripture that says: "Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. (1 Corinthians 3:12-13)" As we work in this world to lay down lines that define God's kingdom, let us use material that stand the test of light and time.
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