Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 January 1883 — Painting the Great Dome of the Capitol. [ARTICLE]

Painting the Great Dome of the Capitol.

It may seem incredible, but it is a fact, nevertheless, that to repaint the outside of the dome requires fifteen tons of pure white lead. This amount of material,. under ordinary circumstances, would be sufficient to paint every house on Pennsylvania avenue from the Capitol to the treasury building. Common white paint would wash off the roof of the dome in the first rain that came along, aud triokle down in big streams, leaving the dirt as palpable as before. The work of repainting would not be rendered so often necessary were it not for the fact that the dome is so constructed that the vertical joints, or ribs, of the walla, which are of iron, as is the entire structure, do not come in actual contact with each other, thereby allowing the rain to get in and rust. Were they joined the grand old dome would assume, each day, under the influence of the weather, new aud horribly fantastic shapes, and some unusually cold morning would find it crushed like an egg-shell into a thousand fragments. The painters on the roof of the dome resemble nothing so much as tiny flies, aud the rope ladders stretching down from the top in every direction like hair lines, remind one of delicate streaks of molasses, which these flies are working for all they are worth. To reach the bottom of the dome it is necessary to lie prostrate and climb down these ladders, a proceeding which is not of itself peculiarly difficult, •but becomes so when he who ascends has a dizzy head, and unsteady nerve, and is encumbered with too many paint pots, and several brushes. The most wonderful thing about the Capitol dome, however, is yet to be told. * It is said that there was a statue in anoient Egypt, called Memnon, which whispered sweet words of melody to the sun as he appeared above the horizon, and sung him to sleep every night with wild, weird lullabies. The grand, haughty goddess of liberty on top of the dome has a heart of bronze, but a good heart for all that, and one filled with true old Virginia courtesy. She has not yet picked up enough courage to attempt to do the prima donna act, but every morning the good dame courtesies to the sun, and when he sinks in the west she again courtesies, but without turning around. Some time since Architect Clark suspended a plummet line from the interior of the dome and it was found by actual measurement that the lead swung over a space of 4i inches, making a total dip out of the penpendieular of 8£ inches. This is caused by the alternate contract tion and expansion of the iron. A ludicrous mistake, which occurred not long since, may be mentioned in this connection. The coast survey had m charge the surveying of the river front preparatory to locating the line for the reclamation of the Potomac flats. The top of the dome was taken as one point of the surveyor’s triangle in estimating certain distances. The ealcu lations thus arrived at was found to sadly differ almost every day, and much swearing and perplexed thinking npon the part of the brilliant engineers was indulged in before the dipping of the dome was brought to mind. After that the top of the Washington monument did unceasing duty as a mathematic guiding star.— Washington Post.