The Technograph

Welcome, freshman engineers! You are holding one of the University’s oldest and juiciest publications. Technograph has provided Champaign-Urbana’s technology fix since 1885. It has evolved over the years from a thick textbook-like publication into the flashy magazine of today. I sifted through the main library stacks to delve into techno-history and reveal the extent of change for both Technograph and the College of Engineering.

The very first Technograph issues were published under the name “Selected Papers of the Civil Engineers’ Club of the University of Illinois.” Changing the name was a good decision. Copies of the first few magazines are available in the library stacks, although you can tell one too many engineers got to them because many pages are torn. The issue I flipped through was over a hundred pages and contained many graphs and equations to stimulate the senses of nineteenth-century engineers. The first article of the 1886 issue was a student’s thesis about the strength of columns. Most of the articles were written by engineering professionals and professors, not students.

Technograph remained true to its beginning form for decades. By 1930, the magazine was much shorter but still had dense, scientific text. Subscriptions cost $1.00 per year or 30 cents for single copies. It seems that in the pre-Facebook era, students spent most of their free time reading thick books.

In the 1950’s, the controversial Technocracks and Techno-cuties arrived. Technocracks were engineering jokes but most of them were about alcohol or sexism. Techno-cuties were profiles of attractive women in the College of Engineering. For historical purposes, we re-ran an old techno-cutie in a recent issue. The student response was negative.

In the 1960’s, the magazine was published seven times a year. An October 1968 article addressed students’ complaints that “teaching in the College of Engineering is inadequate, unrespected, and underemphasized,” pretty much what engineers complain about today. I even stumbled upon a 250-page Technograph book from the 1960’s filled with long research articles.

In recent years, Technograph has focused on providing short, interesting, and clear articles, similar to Discover magazine. We know engineers see enough equations in their classes and hope students of all majors will enjoy reading the magazine.

Technograph has had its peaks and valleys, but it has survived over 120 years and left its mark on the College of Engineering. Now the question is, over the next four years, how are you going to leave yours?

Technocracks from the 50’s:

Engineer: This new book on health says that bathing alone won’t keep you healthy.
Coed: Well I don’t care what it says. I’m going to keep right on bathing alone.

When a girl is mentioned here are some of the things male students want to know:
Fine Arts student: What play has she seen?
Business student: Is she the business type?
Journalism student: What did she ever write?
Engineer: Where is she?

“I call my gal a discontinuous function because she has no limits.” the unknown engineer, 1950’s.

Tagged with: Technocracks, Technocutie, history, technograph