Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-05-25
CASTING A STATUE.
Visit 10 Paris ETORza Foundry
The Process of Manufacture ne.
scribed

VISIT To n Paris EFOnHA Foundry
The Process of manufacfure ile.
scribed
Paris Cor. New York World,l
1t was late in the evening, about
10 o'clock, when we reached Bar
bedienne's foundry in the Rue de
Lancry, ana after having shown
our permits We passed through a
large courtyard and entered the
foundry. 1t was as large as a
church, and the work-benches of
the moulders, deserted by the work
men at this late hour, were not I'M
like pews, for they were on each
side Of long central passage, and
divided by two doors. At the end
of the pit is the building in which
the mold to be cast was buried.
The pit was about twenty feet deep
and fifteen square, and the mold
seemed to fill it, leaving only a few
feet Of space clear between it and
the wall of the pit. This huge
mold, we were told, was to produce
a statue, or rather the lower half of
a statue, of Dom Pedro |, which
now stands IN Rio Janeiro. In the
center of it the score" which was
made of sand, would be taken out
after the hot metal was solidifed,
to correspond to the hollow part of
the statue. The mold had been
built around this "core," leaving a
regular space between it and the
outer mold, which reproduced ex-
actly, in intaglio, the outer surface
of the statue. The business of the
bronze was to fill up this space, and
thereby reproduce the plaster model
from which the mold had been
made. This mold was entirely of
sand, for, like iron, bronze can only
be cast in sand molds; but it was
held and braced together by strong
bands OF wronght-iron.
asked why the casting took
place at so late an hour. The fore
man explained that they had be-
gun to garnir (Anglice, "put to-
gether') at four o'clock that morn
ing; but that the fire in the fur
mace Tor melting the metal was
never lighted before that i'm
portant operation was complete,
as the slightest accident in assem-
bling the component parts of the
mold might cause some serious re-
suits which might postpone the
pouring in of the metal. Now
that everything was in its proper
place, We were motioned to exam
inc the furnace. This was a long.
low brick structure. The fire, Of
coal, was in a large iron CRATE
about six feet square, and the flame
was drawn through large horizon
tai oven fifteen feet long and four
wide. At the end of this it en-
tered into a horizontal flue parallel
to the oven and Immediately above
it, and went with the smoke to the
tall brick chimney of the factory,
about sixty feet in hight. From
five to six tons of coal are used for
a casting Of this size. In the oven
was about six tons of copper, Amer
lean Lake Superior copper, which
when We were allowed to look
through peep.hole in the side of
the brick structure looked like a
mass of burning gold.
One of the assistants began skim
ming the surface Of this metal
through an opening at the end of
the furnace, his face, chest and
arms covered with wet cloths. He
soon took a long rod of clean iron,
and, after stirring the molten metal
with 1t, brought it out without any
Of the bronze sticking to it. This,
we were informed, was a sign that
the copper and zinc in the furnace
were at proper temperature and
well mixed. To complete the
bronze alloy, tin had to be added,
but this is done as late as possible,
as the volatile metal would soon
burn up or evaporate. The long,
thin ingots are thrown in, and to
insure a mixture with the other
component parts of the alloy they
poke it with a long wooden poker,
twelve to fifteen feet long, made