The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-26
iIR CHISEL ARTISANS.
Turning Out Sculpture by the Whole
sale With Machinery.
From the Washington Post.


II any one wants to see sculpture done
new Congressional Library building, where
there are a score of marble cutters at
work on .he fine marble panels and fig
ures that are to adorn the inside of the
building. This is getting to be more and
more of machine-made age, everything
being turned out by contract in job lots
from municipal reforms to tailor-made
girls Not that things are not done fairly
we'll i'm that way. Parkhurst has made
O. very clean job of it in turning the Lexow
river through the Tammany stables, and
the talOr-made girl who buys her suit a
"a bargain out of a shop window looks Of
ten just as well as the one VINO IS really
cut to- measure. But none the less Michael
Angelo or Phidias would stand aghaSt
should he drop into a sculpture factory
these days and see a laboring man working
out statue with a compressed air cut
ter, while the Venus of Milo would doubt
less turn up her nose and the majestic
winged victory of Samothrace would
blush, if she could only find her head to
blush with.
Yet that is what it has come to. The
modern statue is carved by skilled me-
chanic out of marble almost as easily as
though he were carving cheese. The file,
the slender chisel. and the laborious bow
drill are still used on some of the work,
lut the great majority of 1t and all the
hard. coarse cutting are done with ma
chlnery.
The work done in the new library build
ng is high class, and compares faVorably
with that turned out by the older and
more laborious hand process. A very little
Of the carving is done after the stones
nave been set in place, and nearly all of
me great mirror-like panels and low re-
lief work is polished after it has been set.
II me figures, the elaborate cornices, the
dozens of eagles, and most of all 1.-The
.bables,' as the workmen Familiarity term
. ne twenty or thirty infant arts and indus
Nlres, are all cut in the long marble hall
on the north side of the building. Here at
each of the big windows a workman has
ms bench, with his block of stone and
faster cast in front of him. And out all
n pVer the floor are scattered standing blocks
|and low platforms covered with marble
'slabs from which the air chisels make the
llpS fly i'll a cloud. The whole room is
Finite as a flour mill, and filled with mar
PIE dust almost as fine as wheat flour.
zach man has model in plaster from
#"hlch to work, and as the reproduction
p stone is matter of mathematical cal
. uldtlon and not artistic judgment, the
Il nal result in stone really depends on the
rust who FIRST designs the work in class.
me most interesting tool in the shop
the compressed air chisel. 1t is a very
Il nple affair and reminds one unpleas-
#htly of the dentists drill. 1t has the
Eame unpleasant ''b-b-r-r-r-r" that any
no has had tooth filled will re-
'144AbtI, ana occasionally cnOkeS uD with
Ia t-t-s-s-sziti' ike the dentists machine
Ehen 1t gets in a close corner up by a
Nerve But it is not quite so gentle as
Ehe dentists drill. 1t runs under about
|4fty pounds pressure and strikes a
pow between 1900 and 1900 times min
e. There is rubber tube that supplies
II air, and the workman takes the tool
Ia MS hand, pressing it against the stone,
no carving 1t off like cold butter, cut
|Hs gouSe three-quarterS of an inch
. lee and half an inch deep, if need be,
IA else merely tracing a delicate line on
Some of the coarser carving is done by
II sht but the more delicate work is
gne by pointing" In this consists the
h. mole art of the mechanical marble cut
IL He has a surface gauge with three
Ia arp pointed steel feet not unlike a
Ia all hat rack turned upside down. These
Zree feet are connected by telescoping
Ia. ms and joints of various sorts so that
ny can be brought around to rest on
Ia three most prominent points of the
aster cast from which the cutter is
"a rklng. Say it is female bust that is
Ia be carved. The gauge win set with
Ne loot on the tip of the nose, another
one breast, and the third on one Shout
IL Set screws will then clamp it so
pr it may be lifted on and off the plas-
~ cast without changing its shape.
I'll hen the points that will be the nose,
asst and shoulder are found in the
IDle block and tiny holes drilled to re-
We the feet of the guage. There is an
4m to the gauge like a Holsters claw
- can be moved around so as to touch
part of the cast. The gauge is set
the cast, and this arm set to touch
point, say the chin or the ear. Then
- gauge is moved over to the marble
TX and set on its three points, and the
tole cut away under the arm until it
Ia rests on the stone. Then the work
knows where the ear or the chin,
me case may be will come Then the
se IS moved back to the cast and an
- point taken, say on the eve or the
"a sA or the point of the jaw. The gauge
81 moved back each time to the marble
- and the stone cut away until the
Ieet and the extension arm all four
II u, place. Each time a point is taken
~ lhe cast it is marked with a pencil
~ T. ana the whole model is gone over
~ u me plaster Venus looks like a badly
81 AIed summer girl. Thousands OF
'.s may be taken on a single figure
"a When the workman has cut down Il
one on his block OF stone he has his
- done in the rough and all il
nus is polishing.
a. az his finer work the worknen use
III ,1les, delicate pointed chiseIs and
oId bow drill, just the sort the In.
IS l9 USED to have to start their fires
-i' oelng loose bowstring wrapped