Bibliography for Dimensioning and Tolerancing

With an Emphasis on Geometric Methods

A bibliography for dimensioning and tolerancing (with an emphasis on geometric methods), only. It is not a bibliography for drafting in general. For that, see the Drafting and Drawing Bibliography. I'm sure there are errors here, and would welcome corrections. Tracking down all of these sources is often costly and sometimes impossible (in a few instances, it is likely that no copies survive).

I suspect that you will tire of the note "I have not yet read this," but I think that it is important for me to distinguish documents that I can list because I have them in hand from those that I know only secondhand through references in other documents. This is especially importand because the track record of this literature for accurate citation of documents is poor. As these are documents concerning tolerancing, there is a certain irony to this.

{Abbott 1953} Abbott, W. The Dimensioning of Engineering Drawings. London: Blackie and Son Limited, 1953.

To judge by the number of secondhand copies available, this book appears to have been relatively popular. Referenced in { PE 1956} .

I have not yet read this.

{Admiralty 1944} Data Sheets for Designers and Draughtsmen. Admiralty [UK], 1944.

Two manuals, one on components and one on gauges. Referenced by F. H. Rolt in {Parker 1956}. Referenced in {Inter-Services 1948}.

I have been unable to locate any copies of these manuals, either online or at the GB National Archives (at least via their digital catalogue).

{AGI 2003} Applied Geometrics, Inc. GD&T ASME 14.5M-1994 Dimensioning & Tolerancing. [Location?] Applied Geometrics, Inc., 2003.

This appears to be the handouts/foils for a presentation by Applied Geometrics, Inc. to the firm of Carl Zeiss. It is online at: http://www.conceptmachine.com/files/zeiss/GD&T_Handouts.pdf

{Bibeau & Sweet 1959} True Position Dimensioning. Sidney, NY: Scintilla div. of Bendix Aviation Corp., 1969. Revised 1962.

Cited in {Foster 1970}.

I have not yet read this.

{BS 308 1943} British Standards Institution. B.S. 308: 1943. Engineering Drawing Office Practice. London: British Standards Institution, 1943. 51pp. + 4 fold-out drawings.

{Buckingham 1921} Principles of Interchangeable Manufacturing. NY: The Industrial Press, 1921

{Buckingham 1954} Dimensions and Tolerances for Mass Production. NY: Machinery Publishing Co. Ltd., 1954. 164 pages.

Reviewed in { PE 1956} .

I have not yet read this.

{Chevrolet 1940} Chevrolet Draftsman's Handbook. (1940)

I have not yet read this.

{Fischer 2010} Fischer, Bryan R. Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing Visual Glossary with GD&T At-A-Glance[TM] Sheets. Sherwood, OR: Advanced Dimensional Management LLC, 2006-2010.

{Fortini 1967} Fortini, E. T. Dimensioning for Interchangeable Manufacture. NY: Industrial Press, 1967.

I have not yet read this.

{Foster 1963} Foster, Lowell W. A Treatise on Geometric and Positional Dimensioning and Tolerancing. Honeywell, Inc., 1963.

The author later noted that this book was "widely used within Honeywell Inc. and by many other companies" and that together with {Foster 1966} it was revised into {Foster 1970}. (See {Foster 1970}, p. iv.)

{Foster 1966} Foster, Lowell W. A Treatise on Geometric and Dimensioning and Tolerancing. Honeywell, Inc., 1966.

The author later noted that this book was "widely used within Honeywell Inc. and by many other companies" and that together with {Foster 1963} it was revised into {Foster 1970}. (See {Foster 1970}, p. iv.)

{Foster 1970} Foster, Lowell W. Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing: A Working Guide. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1970. Third printing, May 1972.

The author says that this volume is a revision of {Foster 1963} and {Foster 1966}

{Foster 1986} Foster, Lowell W. Geo-Metrics II as based upon ANSI Y14.5M-1982 Practices. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1985. (Revised 1986 edition.)

{Giesecke} Giesecke, Frederick E. et. al. Technical Drawing. [Many editions, 1933 to the present]

In the 20th century, each major technical publisher had its own drafting textbook, maintained over many decades by a series of authors. Giesecke's was Macmillan's. For more detailed bibliographic information on it, see the entry on Giesecke in the Drafting and Drawing Bibliography.

{Gilson 1951} Gilson, John, et. al. A New Approach to Engineering Tolerances: a critical presentation of the considerations necessary for the allocation and maintenance of realistic tolerances in modern economic production. London: Machinery Pub. Co., 1951. 99 pages.

I have not yet read this.

{Gladman 1945} Gladman, C. "Drawing Office Practice in Relation to Interchangeable Components." Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Vol. 152, No. 1 (1945): 388-418.

Reprinted in the US as SAE Technical Paper 450238, 1945.

Not to be confused with [Architecture and Building] Drawing Office Practice. B.S. 1192: 1944.

I have not yet read this. [TO DO: GET COPY (UW has ProcIME version, Wendt)]

{Healy & Rau 1953} Healy, William L. and Arthur H. Rau. Simplified Drafting Practice: A Modern Approach to Industrial Drafting. NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1953.

Does not discuss geometric methods.

{Honsinger 1994} Honsinger, David H. Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing - 1946 to 1982: The Differences in the Standards. Memorandum Report ARCCB-MR-94040. Watervliet, N.Y.: US Army Research, Development and Engineering Center, Close Combat Armaments Center, Benét Laboratories, Oct. 1994.

Honsiger's study is one of the very few historical studies of geometric methods in dimensioning and tolerancing. It is basically a close technical report on the different interpretations of individual types of features. It is useful also because it associates clearly the contemporary (1940s, 1950s) use of the terms "datum dimensioning," "true position dimensioning," and "geometric dimensioning and tolerancing" with each other. It would have been more useful still if it had contained any bibliographic information at all on the various standards it referenced.

This is available online from the US Department of Defense Technical Information Center, at: http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a290909.pdf>

It is a US federal government publication, and therefore in the public domain by law. Here is a local copy of the DTIC PDF:

[click image to view larger]

{Inter-Service 1948} Inter-services Committee for Dimensioning and Tolerancing of Drawings, Great Britain Ministry of Supply. Dimensional Analysis of Engineering Designs. Vol. 1, Components (Part 1) London: HMSO, 1948. 123pp.

It is held by the British Library and other non-US libraries. [TO DO: GET COPY] It is available for copying by the British Library Document Supply Service. It has been digitized by Google but is not viewable.

Referenced in { PE 1956} .

I have not yet read this.

{Krulikowski 1991} Krulikoswki, Alex. Fundamentals of Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing. First edition. Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers, 1991. [second edition (NY: Delmar division of Thomson Learning, Inc., 1998)]

{Liggett 1970} Liggett, John V. Fundamentals of Position Tolerance. NY: Society of Manufacturing Engineers, 1970.

I have not yet read this.

{MIL-STD-8 1949} MIL-STD-8. 1949.

Referenced in {Fischer 2010}.

I have not yet read this.

{MIL-STD-8A 1953} MIL-STD-8A. 1953.

I have not yet read this.

{MIL-STD-8B 1959} MIL-STD-8B. Military Standard. Dimensioning and Tolerancing. 16 November 1959.

I have not yet read this.

{MIL-STD-8C 1963} MIL-STD-8C. Military Standard. Dimensioning and Tolerancing. 16 October 1963.

{ Nature 1946} "Metrology at the National Physical Laboratory: Mr. F. H. Rolt, O.B.E." Nature, Vol. 157 (23 March 1946): 364.

A brief notice on the succession of F. H. Rolt to the head of the National Physical Laboratory (UK). Abstract online at: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v157/n3986/abs/157364b0.html

{Neumann 2009} Neumann, Scott and Al Neumann. GeoTol Pro: A Practical Guide to Geometric Tolerancing. Dearborn, MI: Society of Manufacturing Engineers, 2009.

{ORD 30-1-7 1946} [US Army] Ordnance Corps. ORD 30-1-7. Standard for Dimensioning and Tolerancing. / Ordnance Manual on Dimensioning and Tolerancing.

I have not yet found a copy of this standard, and my citation for it here should be taken as highly uncertain. The several references I have to it all cite it in different ways, each less certain than the last:

{Giesecke} (3rd ed., 1949), p. 424 has: " Ordnance Manual on Dimensioning and Tolerancing, issued by Inspection Gauge Sub-Office, Office of Chief of Ordnance, A.S.F., United States Army."

{Foster 1970}, p. iv and {Foster 1986}, p. ix have: 'Ordnance Corps., "Standard for Dimensioning and Tolerancing ORD 30-1-7."

{Honsinger 1994} has: "30-1-7 (1946)".

{Honsinger 1994}, p. 3 and later as "30-1-6 (1946). makes the comment (several times) that "this standard is truly unsophisticated." Note that some online sources refere to it as a "DoD" document; this cannot be the case, because the US Department of Defense did not exist in 1946.

Note: {Krulikowski 1991} refers to a U.S. Army "Ordinance [sic] Manual on Dimensioning and Tolerancing" of 1945 and says that it "introduced the use of symbols (rather than notes) for specifying form and positioning tolerances." I will assume that he is referring to ORD 30-1-7 (1946).

{Parker 1940} Parker, S[tanley]. Notes on Design and Inspection of Mass Production Engineering Work. Sheffield, UK: Gauge Design Drawing Office, Naval Ordnance Gauge Factory, Sheffield, 1940.

This is the earliest work in the line of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing work which begins with Parker. A copy is held at the UK National Archive, under Reference (i.e., catalog) No. 257/132.

I have not yet read this.

{Parker 1956} Parker, S[tanley]. Drawings and Dimensions. London: Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, Ltd., 1956.

This is the basic reference in the field of geometric methods for dimensioning and tolerancing. Yet it is out of print (but still in copyright) and few have seen it.

{ PE 1952} "The First Sir Alfred Herbert Paper, 1951/1952." The Production Engineer: The Journal of the Institution of Production Engineers. Vol. 31, No. 3 (1952): 130-132.

This is a biographical sketch of F. H. Rolt upon the occasion of his presenting the paper noted. The first page of this is online at the ieeeexplore.ieee.org website (and is available for purchase there).

{ PE 1956} [Review of] "Dimensions and Tolerances for Mass Production" in "Hazleton Memorial Library: Reviews and Additions" column of The Production Engineer: The Journal of the Institution of Production Engineers. Vol. 35, No. 7 (1956): 475.

This column contains reviews of recent acquisitions by the Hazleton Memorial Library of the Institution of Production Engineers (London). In this case the review is of {Buckingham 1954}, with references to {Inter-Services 1948} and {Abbott 1953}.

{Roth 1964} Roth, Edward S. Functional Gaging of Positionally Toleranced Parts: A Fully Illustrated Interpretation of True-Position Dimensioning for Fixed-Element Receiver Gaging, with Applications for Gage Designers, Product Designers, and Process Engineers. First edition. Dearborn, MI: American Society of Tool and Manufacturing Engineers , 1964. (2nd ed. (Dearborn, MI: SOciety of Manufacturing Engineers, 1970)

{SAE Aero 1946} SAE. SAE Aeronautical Drafting Manual. NY: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1946.

This seems to have been issued in loose-leaf format, continually updated. A search through WorldCat incidates that the 5th edition was 1954, the 7th edition was 1957, and the 8th edition, June 1, 1960, was retitled Aero-Space Drafting Manual. It might (I haven't verified this) have been consolidated in 1963 with the SAE Automotive Drafting Standards {SAE Auto 1952} into {SAE Aero-Auto 1963}.

Its origin in 1946 is cited in {Krulikowski 1991}, p. 4.

I have not yet read this.

{SAE Auto 1952} SAE. SAE Automotive Drafting Standards: Recommended Uniform Practices for Industry, Technical Schools, and Engineering Colleges. NY: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1952.

Referenced in {Krulikowski 1991}, p. 4. Title corrected by, and date (1952) confirmed by, HathiTrust citation. Issued loose-leaf.

I have not yet read this.

{SAE Aero-Auto 1963} SAE. SAE Aerospace-Automotive Drafting Standards. NY: Society of Automotive Engineers, 1963.

This might (I haven't verified this) have been a consolidation of the SAE Aeronautical Drafting Manual {SAE Aero 1945} and the SAE Automotive Drafting Standards {SAE Auto 1952} .

Citation from WorldCat. I have not yet read this.

{Simmons 2004} Simmons, Colin H. and Dennis E. Maguire. Manual of Engineering Drawings to British and International Standards. Second Edition. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Newnes, 2004. [First edition was (Arnold, 1995). Reprints by (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2001 & 2002)]

Contains a very brief, but comprehensive, revision history of B.S. 308.

{Wakefiled 1954} Wakefiled, L. P. Dimensioning for Interchangeability. [NY?] Pergamon, 1964.

I have not yet read this.

{Y14.5-1957} ASA. Y14.5-1957. American Drafting Standards Manual, Section 5: Dimensioning and Notes .

Preceded by the ASA Drawing and Drafting Room Practices Z14.1 series; I'm not yet sure if ASA {Z14.1-1946} was the version immediately preceeding this Y14.5-1957 or if there were intermediate versions I haven't discovered yet. Succeeded by USASI {Y14.5-1966}

Referenced in {Fischer 2010}.

I have not yet read this.

{Y14.5-1966} USASI. Y14.5-1966. [title?]

Preceeded by ASA {Y14.5-1957}. Succeeded by ANSI {Y14.5-1973}.

I have not yet read this.

{Y14.5-1973} ANSI. Y14.5-1973.

Preceeded by USASI {Y14.5-1966}. Succeeded by ASME {Y14.5M-1982}.

I have not yet read this.

{Y14.5M-1982} ASME Y14.5M-1982. Dimensioning and Tolerancing.

Preceeded by ANSI {Y14.5-1973}. Reaffirmed in 1988. Succeeded by ASME {Y14.5M-1994}.

{Y14.5M-1994} ASME Y14.5M-1994. Dimensioning and Tolerancing.

Preceeded by ASME {Y14.5-1982}. Reaffirmed in 2004. Succeeded by ASME {Y14.5-2009}.

{Y14.5M-2009} ASME Y14.5M-2009. Dimensioning and Tolerancing.

Preceeded by ASME {Y14.5-1994}. As I write this in 2014, this is the current revision of the Y14.5 standard.

{Utter 1965} Utter, R. F., A. D. Bridegam, R. O. Dell, R. E. Dunlap, D. R. Fisher, and J. E. Taylor. Concepts of the True Position Dimensioning System. Chicago: Central Scientific Company, 1965.

One bookseller's listing indicates that all of the authors were with Sandia National Laboratory.

I have not yet read this.

{Z14.1-1935} ASA. Z14.1-1935. Drawing and Drafting Room Practice. NY: American Standards Association, 1935.

I have not yet seen an original copy of this, but it would appear that the bulk (or all?) of its actual content was reprinted in {Giesecke}, 2nd ed. (incl. Aeronautical Drafting), 1942, pp. 673-690.

Referenced in {Krulikowski 1991}.

{Giesecke}, 2nd ed. (incl. Aeronautical Drafting), 1942, p. 673 indicates that a "tentative draft" revision of this standard was "issued to selected individuals for their criticism or approval" in October 1942.

{Z14.1-1946} ASA. Z14.1-1946. Drawing and Drafting Room Practice. NY: American Standards Association, April 1946.

I think (but have not yet verified) that this was preceded by {ASA 1935},

It was succeeded by the ASA Y14 series, but I don't yet know if {Y14.5-1957} was the next edition (of the dimensioning and tolerancing sections) or if there were intermediate versions I haven't discovered yet.

I have not yet seen an original copy of this, but it would appear that the bulk (or all?) of its actual content was reprinted in {Giesecke}, 3rd ed., 1949, pp. 758-780.

Referenced in {Krulikowski 1991}. who says it "made minimal mention of tolerancing." He is correct.

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