Clarksville daily chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1884-188?, 1884-11-05

Harnesses IN ana BarthoIdISs Glib
eFty''-An English Account.
ICbambsrs' Io1lrnaI.l

| lOudtuD4t5 SQHrnAl
A piece of interesting news came q
is from Egypt regarding a discovery
recently made in Lower Egypt by Mr..
Flinders Petrie, of the fragments Of q
colossal statue of King Rameses ii,
which, calculating the height from the
fragments which remain, must havt
stood considerably over 100 feet in
height The material employed is gran.
lite; and the executing of such a work
in such material, and, when com
pleted, rearing it into position, must
have involved profound knowledge
not only of high art, but of engineering
skill Is it possible that the statue
could have. been cut out whole in one
piece? If so, what lever-power did the
Egyptians possess to raise such an
enormous weight into a perpendicular
position3
Many of our readers will doubtless re-
member Mr.. Poynter's grand picture in
the Royal Academy of London, few
years ago, entitled Israel in Egypt "
1t represented an enormous mass of
sculpture mounted on wheeled truck,
dragged along by hundreds of the I'M
fortunate captive Israelites, who arc
Smarting under thu whips of their cruel
drivers. Mr.. Poynter had good au-
thority for his motive power as
shown in his picture. So far as we can
discover from ancient works or ancient
sculpture, the hugest stone masses were
transported mainly by force of human
muscles, with few mechanical expedients
Levers and rollers seem to have
been almost, if not altogether,
unknown. The mass was gener-
ally placed on a kind of sledge,
the ground over which it was to pass
fabricated with some oily substance, and
the sheer strength of human shoulders
was then applied.
The most colossal and by far the most
remarkable statue of modern days is
that most elaborate and rather eccentric
gift of the French nation to the people
of America. Not only is it remarkable
for it's enormous height and gigantic
proportions, but for the very singular
and ingenious manner in which it has
been constructed--so singular, indeed,
that at first sight it is somewhat diff
cult to comprehend the manner in which
it has been built up, piece by piece, espec-
tally when we mention that the several
pieces of copper composing the figure
have not been cast. How, then, have
they been madel This we will try to
explain.
The statue is a female figure of Lib
erty, having on her head q crown, and
holding aloft in her hand torch. The
figure is eighty-five feet high; but, reck-
oning the extreme height to the top of
the torch, the marvellous altitude of 1877
feet nine inches is reached. The statue
is to be reared on pedestal of solid
granite eighty-three feet high, so that
the entire work will rise to the immense
height of 300 feet nine inches. The
artist is M. Bartholdi (the family name,
by-the-by, of the great composer best
known as Mendelssohn).
Having first carefully constructed a
model in clay about life-size, this was
repeatedly enlarged until the necessary
form and size were obtained. The next
step was to obtain plaster casts from
the clay, and these casts were then re-
produced by clever artists in hard wood.
The wooden blocks were then, in their
turn, placed in the hands of copper
smiths, who, by the hammer alone, it is
stated, gave the copper sheets the exact
form Of the wooden molds or models;
and thus, in this peculiar and laborious
manner, the outside copper Skin" Of
the statue was formed, and, to all out
ward appearance, completed. But as
the copper is only one-eighth of an inch
thick, an inner skin is also provided,
placed about q foot behind the first,
while the intermediate space will be
filed in with sand, especially at the
lower extremities, to give the whole
steadfast foundation.
The stability of the figure will not,
however, be left to depend solely on
these sheets of copper and loose sand;
and, therefore, the Interior, from top to
bottom, will be strengthened by frame
work of girders and supports, by which
the whole will be knit together in one
frm, compact, unyielding mass. As the
sheets OF copper and the interior frame
work are simply secured in the ordinary
manner by rivets, when it is desired to
remove this metallic mountain all that
has to be done is to unrivet- the several
plates and take do1n and pack on board
ship for New York.
II Mr.. Flinders Petrie's discovery of
the remains Of the gigantic statue of
Rameses II In Lower Egypt, 100 feet
high, Of solid granite, is the largest
status Of antiquity, the Liberty" of N.
may certainly take rank as tho
most colossal production Of modern