Patent Drawings Then and Now

Wired shows some examples of drawings accompanying patent applications over the years:

Since the United States Patent & Trade Office opened in 1790, it has required that every patent be accompanied by an illustration depicting the applicant's invention. But in the past 222 years, patent drawings have changed, degrading from detailed works of art to simplistic line drawings that barely qualify as illustrations.
Whereas patent drawings from the 1800s and even early- to mid-1900s featured artistic techniques like shading, multiple perspectives and texture, today’s patent drawings are often embarrassing doodles at best. We can blame both cultural changes and adjustments in patent application rules. For one, the patent office no longer requires that patent applicants hire an official draftsman to draw an invention. And in 2000, the PTO adjusted its rules to decrease how often applicants need to revise their drawings with corrections.

A couple of examples:

 Artificial Arm, 1865

Much less impressive is this:

 

Gestures for Touch Sensitive Input Devices, 2006

I love their description of this travesty:

For a company that could actually afford beautiful patent drawings, Apple is a huge disappointment. The company has revenues in the tens of billions, yet its patent drawings are notoriously bad. In this drawing for gestures used in touch-capable devices, like the iPad, it’s as if the illustrator had never seen a pair of hands. They’re disproportionate, and there’s no distinction between the palm and wrist. Plus, the fingers look strangely alien as they rest on the tablet in a totally unnatural position.
The tablet itself also lacks any depth, and the illustrator didn’t even bother to include letters and numbers on the touch keyboard. At least the drawing does have minimal line shading to show its glass surface. Still, those hands are so grotesque and contorted, it’s hard to fathom why Apple didn’t just hire a professional artist to handle this patent drawing.