Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 August 1884 — A Huge Electric Battery. [ARTICLE]

A Huge Electric Battery.

In erecting the great Statue of Liberty, two things had to be considered that Beem very trifling, and yet, if negLcted, might destroy the statue in one day, or cause it to crumble slowly to pieces. One is the sun, the other is the sea breeze. Either of these could destroy the great copper figure, and something must be done to prevent such a disaster. The heat of the snn would expand the metal and pull it out of shape, precisely as it does pull the Brooklyn Bridge out of shape every day. The bridge is made in four Earts, and when they expand with the eat of the sun they slide one past the other, and no harm is done. The river span rises and falls day and night, as heat and cold alternate. The great copper statue is likewise in two parts, the frame-work of iron and the copper covering; and while they are securely fastened together they can move one over the other. Each bolt will slip a trifle as the copper expands in the hot August sunshine, and slide back again when the freezing winds blow and the vast figure shrinks together in the cold. Besides this, ftie copper surface is so thin and elastic that it will bend slightly when heated, yet keep its general shape. The salff air blowing in from the sea has thin fingers and a bitter, biting tongue. If it finds a crack where it can creep in between the copper surface and the iron skeleton, there will be trouble at once. These metals do not agree together, and where there is salt moisture in the air they seem to quarrel more bitterly than ever. It seems that every joining of points of copper and iron snakes a tiny battery, and so faint shivers of electricity would run through all the statue, slowly corroding and eating it into dust. This curious, silent, and vet sure destruction must be prevented, and so every joint throughout the statue, wherever copper touches iron, must be protected with little rags stuffed between the metals to keep them from quarreling. It is the same wUerever two different metals touch each other. Imagine what a tremendous battery the Liberty wonld make, with its tons of copper suiface and monstrous skeleton of iron. However, a little care prevents all danger, as provision will be made, of course, for keeping the metals from touching each other.— u The Bartholdi Statue,” by Charles Barnard, in St. Nicholas.