THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Nov. 1, 1864. 



146 PHOTO-SCULPTURE. 



Yet the result is a perfect fac-simile of the original. Moreover, the work 

 is executed in one-tenth of the time required for modelling by hand. 

 This beautiful application of photography is called Photo-Sculpture, and 

 is the invention of M. Willenie, an eminent French sculptor. Before 

 explaining how M. Willerue was led to this discovery, let me remind 

 you that photography itself was invented by painters of talent — by 

 artists, who, while using the camera obscura for studying the subject of 

 their intended pictures, were struck with the beauty of those natural re- 

 presentations. In contemplating them they naturally desired that the 

 pictures could be permanently fixed. Considering that these pictures 

 were formed by the light reflected from the objects, they essayed to fix 

 them by availing themselves of the known scientific fact that light had 

 the property of blackening certain chemical compounds. The flash of 

 that idea was enough ; their genius and perseverance solved the problem, 

 and they created that art which they desired so much — photography. A 

 similar and no less instructive story may be told of photo-sculpture. 

 M. Willenie was in the habit, whenever he could procure photographs 

 of his sitters, of endeavouring to communicate to the model the cor- 

 rectness of those unerring types. But how should he raise the outlines 

 of fiat pictures into a solid form ? Yet these single photographs, such 

 as they were, could serve him to measure exactly profile outlines. He 

 could, indeed, by means of one of the points of a pantograph, follow the 

 outline of the photograph, while, with the other point directed on the 

 model, he ascertained and corrected any error which had been commu- 

 nicated to his work during the modelling. What he could do with one 

 view, or one single photograph of the sitter, he might do also with 

 several other views if he had them. This was sufficient to open the 

 inquiry of an ingenious mind. He saw at once that if he had photographs 

 of many other profiles of the sitter, taken at the same moment, by a 

 number of camera obscuras placed around, he might alternately and 

 consecutively correct his model by comparing the profile outline of each 

 photograph with the corresponding outline of the model. Such was the 

 origin of a marvellous and splendid discovery. But it soon naturally 

 occurred to him, that instead of correcting his model when nearly com- 

 pleted, he had better work with the pantograph upon the rough block of 

 clay, and cut it out gradually all round in following one after the other 

 the outline of each of the photographs. Now, supposing that he had 

 twenty-four photographs, representing the sitter in as many points of 

 view (all taken at once), he had but to turn the block of clay after every 

 operation l-24th of the base upon w^hich it is fixed, and to cut out the 

 next profile, until the block had completed its entire revolution, and 

 then the clay was transformed into a perfect solid figure of the twenty- 

 four photographs — the statue of the bust w r as made. When this is once 

 explained, every one must be struck with admiration at the excellence 

 of the process. It is so sure, and so simple, that we are surprised it has 

 not been thought of before. But so it is with the most valuable inven- 



