Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 August 1884 — How the Great Statue Was Made. [ARTICLE]

How the Great Statue Was Made.

Charles Barnard contributed to St. Nicholas a very graphic and popular account of Bartholdi’s great Statue of Liberty, from which we make the following extract: “In the first place, there had to be a sketch or model. This was a figure of the statue in clay, to give an idea of how it would look. The public approved of this model, and then the first real study of the work was made—a plaster statue, just onesixteenth the size of the intended statue.

“The next step was to make another model just four times as large, or onefourth the size of the real statue. This quarter-size model being finished, then came the task of making the full-sized model in plaster. But this had to be made in sections. For instance, the first section would include the base on which the figure stood, the feet, and the hem of the garment. The next section would include a circle quite round the long flowing dress, just above the hem. The third section would stand above this and show more of the folds of the dress, and reach part of the way up to the knee. In like manner, the whole figure would be divided into sections. “The quarter-size model was first divided in this way, and then to lay out the full-size plan it was only necessary to make a plan of each section four times as large as the section actually was in the model. Every part of the model was covered with marks or dots for guides, and by measuring from dot to dot, increasing the measurement four times, and then transferring it to the larger model, an exact copy just four times as large was made. For each of these large sections, however, there had to be a support of some kind, before the plaster could be laid on. Having marked on the floor an outline plan of the enlarged section, a wooden framework was built up inside the plan. Then upon this frame-work plaster was roughly spread. It soon resembled, in a rude way, the corresponding section of the quarter-size model, but was four times as large. Then the workmen copied in this pile of plaster every feature of the model section, measuring and measuring, again and again, from dot to dot, correcting by means of plumb-lines, and patiently trying and retrying till an exact copy—only in proportion four times as large—was attained. “The great irregularity of the drapery made it necessary to put 300 marks on each section, besides 1,200 smaller guide-marks, in order to secure an exact correspondence in proportion between the enlarged sections of the fullsized model and the sections of the quarter-size model. Each of these marks, moreover, had to be measured three times on both models, and after that came all the remeasurements, to prove that not a single mistake had been made.

“When these sections in plaster had been completed, then came the work of making wooden molds that should be exact copies, both in size and modeling, of the plaster. These were all carefully made by hand. It was long, tedious, and difficult. Each piece was a mold of a part of the statue, exactly fitting every projection, depression, and curve of that portion of the figure or drapery. Into these wooden models sheets of metal were laid, and pressed or beaten down till they fitted the irregular surfaces of the molds. All the repousse, or hammered work was done from the back, or inside, of the sheet. If the mold is an exact copy of a part of the statue, it is easy to see that the sheet of metal, when made to fit it, will, when taken out and turned over, be a copy of that part of the statue. “These sheets were of copper, and each was from one to three yards square. Each formed a part of the bronze statue, and of course no two were alike. “In this complicated manner, by making first a sketch, then a quartersize model, then a full-size model in sections, then hundreds of wooden copies, and lastly by beating into shape three hundred sheets of copper, the enormous statue was finished. These three hundred bent and hammered plates, weighing in all eighty-eight tons, form the outside of the statue. They are very thin, and while they fit each other perfectly, it is quite plain that if they were put together in their proper order they would never stand alone. These hammered sheets make the outside of the statue; but there must be also a skeleton, a bony structure inside, to hold it together. This is of iron beams, firmly riveted together, and making a support to which the copper shell can be fastened.”