Willard Cope Brinton was an American consulting engineer, president of Brinton Associates, and information visualisation pioneer, particularly known for publication of the 1914 textbook on graphic methods, entitled Graphic methods for presenting facts.
In the Preface of "Graphic methods for presenting facts," Brinton explained the intention of his work: More in detail Brinton continued: In a 2012 blog G.K. VanPatter commented, that "Graphic Methods for Presenting Facts is an impressive, early survey of what would today be considered to be bare-bones statistical diagrams and graphic techniques that existed at that moment. Now scarce in original form, this early volume is recognized as the first American book focused on graphic techniques geared for a general audience."
Knowledge representation
In Graphic methods for presenting facts explained about the need for knowledge representation:
After a person has collected data and studied a proposition with great care so that his own mind is made up as to the best solution for the problem, he is apt to feel that his work is about completed. Usually, however, when his own mind is made up, his task is only half done.
According to Brinton ineffective presentation can lead to fallacious conclusions:
It is often with impotent exasperation that a person having the knowledge sees some fallacious conclusion accepted, or some wrong policy adopted, just because known facts cannot be marshalled and presented in such manner as to be effective.
And furthermore:
Ordinarily, facts do not speak for themselves. When they do speak for themselves, the wrong conclusions are often drawn from them. Unless the facts are presented in a clear and interesting manner, they are about as effective as a phonograph record with the phonograph missing.
On the initiative of Willard C. Brinton and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1913 a Joint Committee on Standards for Graphic Presentation was initiated. In this commission participated 15 scientific societies with a national scope, and 2 bureaus of the US federal government. The commission was chaired by Willard C. Brinton, and Leonard Porter Ayres of the American Statistical Association was its secretary. The initial meeting of the committee was held in December 1914. The committee made a study of the methods used in different fields of endeavor for presenting statistical and quantitative data in graphic form. Its intention in 1915 was described as: In 1915 the committee published their first report, described as preliminary. It consisted of a first set of suggestions, which the committee had thus far considered as representing the more generally applicable principles of elementary graphic presentation in several magazines of the participating scientific societies. Calvin F. Schmid summarized: "The report was relatively brief, consisting of 17 simply stated basic rules, each illustrated with one to three diagrams. Fourteen of the rules, including the accompanying diagrams, were devoted exclusively to the portrayal of time series in the form of arithmetic line charts. Of the three remaining rules, one emphasized the preference of linear magnitudes over areas or volumes, another represented a simple procedure pertaining to semi-logarithmetic charts, and the last, the desirability of emphasizing the 100 percent or other base line in the delineation of an arithmetic grid." Since this first publication of standards in graphic presentation other committees in the US published revised and extended standards of graphic presentation, according to Schmid, in 1936, 1938, and 1960.
Selected publications
Brinton authored two books on graphic presentation methods, and numerous magazine articles. Books:
Brinton, Willard Cope. . The Engineering magazine company, 1914.
Brinton, Willard Cope. .New York city, Brinton associates, 1939.
Articles, a selection:
American Statistical Association. "." Publications of ASA 14 : 790-797.
