This paper examines ‘mechanical drawing’ in relation to the public culture of ‘industrial enlightenment’ around 1800 in which printed representations alongside exhibitions and lectures created a ‘meaning for machines’ that aimed to unite science, technical know-how and commerce. Technical illustrations often used drawing machine technology in a self-reflexive way and many mechanical engineers concerned themselves with technologies of representation on paper, using and inventing drawing machines to manage the literature of professional presentation. Through considering the interaction between procedures for making and using drawing equipment, I argue that these toy-like devices contributed just as much as bridges or gargantuan steam powered machines did to the self-fashioning of engineers and engineering at this date.