LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING TiiE WORLD. 601 



for the skill with which he has handled colossal subjects; for apart from ihe gen- 

 ius necessary to form a grandiose conception of such a work of art as that with 

 which the friendship of the two great republics of the world is to be celebrated, 

 there is required no small amount of mechanical knowledge to bring it to com- 

 pletion. The resources of modern mechanics render this a matter of comparative 

 certainty. The sculptor is no longer required to perform such prodigies of labor 

 or to undergo such agony of suspense and fear as those described by Benvenuto 

 Cellini in his letters, recently published, containing an account of the casting of 

 his " Perseus" and " Medusa." But though the artist of today goes about his 

 task with confidence in its accomplishment, the erection of a statue of more than 

 155 feet in height — not counting the pedestal — to stand in an exposed situation, 

 unsheltered by adjacent structures, is decidedly the most gigantic enterprise of 

 its kind. 



The work is now going on in the yards of Messrs. Gaget, Gauthier & Co., 

 in Paris. The hand alone will be 5 metres (16 feet 5 inches) in length ; the in- 

 dex finger will be 2.45 metres (a trifle over 8 feet) long, with a circumference at 

 the second joint of about 7 feet 6 inches ; and the nail of this finger will present 

 a surface about 13 inches by 10. These figures will give some idea of the enor- 

 mous dimensions of the statue. Those who have a liking for other means of 

 calculation may be interested in knowing that the whole statue (without the ped- 

 estal) will overtop the famous Vendome Column more than nine feet ; that in 

 the head forty persons can assemble, and in the torch at least a dozen more. 

 The statue, as is well known, is to be hollow, and is to be literally '" built " of 

 plates of hammered copper nine-tenths of an inch in thickness. The method of 

 construction is curious and interesting. The first essential was, of course, the 

 "sketch model" of M. Bartholdi, which was what may be called life size, being 

 6 feet 7 inches in height. This was the basis of the measurements, which, how- 

 ever, were twice multiplied. It was first magnified four times, and reviewed and 

 remodeled by the artist. It was then divided into sections, which are reproduced 

 four times larger yet, with the greatest possible care. Models in plaster of the 

 final and definitive size are made in the vast yards. The workmen first sketch the 

 general form in frames of wood covered with laths and recovered with a coat of 

 plaster. They then verify the principal measurements thus established, and 

 finish the modeling of the surfaces and the details. When a course is finished, 

 joiners take the forms by means of planks cut in silhouette to fit the form of the 

 plaster. 



These are then so arranged together as to form a species of imprint of the 

 parts to which- they have been applied, and make what are technically termed 

 gabari s, or wooden moulds, into which the hammerers pressed the copper sheets 

 by the pressure of levers, or by beating with hammers. The copper is then fin- 

 ished by beating with smaller hammers or rods, outside and inside, to conform 

 closely to the lines of the forms desired, which have been taken in detail by 

 means of sheets of lead pressed upon the model. 1 he workman in doing this 

 part of his task places himself directly tefore the plaster models, and compares 



