I used to run a machine that duplicated masters from the plastic sheets on which the drafter had plotted them to blueprint copies for the work folders that would be taken to the field. It was inadequately ventilated and one got a good whiff of ammonia whenever one used it. I don't know what that did to my lifespan. Then along came a XEROX large scale copier which did the same job without the chemicals. Now you can't find those much anymore as the modern plotters are so dam big.

I took drafting classes learning skills which are hardly in demand anymore but there was good discipline in much of the material one had to turn out. And a skosh of creativity.

And I used to love browsing in stationery stores looking at the variety of pens and particularly mechanical pencils. You could sometimes tell an engineer's importance, self-importance, or place on the food chain by the make and model of (usually) his mechanical pencil. That is not a euphemism.