The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1895-01-23
BIG BRONZE STATUES.
Some of the Complications En-
countered in Casting Them.
Where Some of the Largest American
Figures In This Metal Are Located
THE Process of Their Com
structiOn.

Few have any idea of the difficulty of
casting a large bronze statue. The
popular idea is that molten bronze is
poured into mold, and then, when
the metal has cooled, the mold is
knocked off and the statue is complete.
How much more elaborate is the proc
ess, saws the New York World, may
be gathered from the following descrip-
ton of the casting of a large bronze
statue in one piece: After the plaster
model has been obtained from the ar
tist it is laid upon frame and built
up all over with reddish sand, which
is peculiarly fitted for the purpose be-
cause of its cohesiveness when worked
and of its stony hardness when dry. It
is imported from France, the best com
ing from Fontenoy- Roses, about
sixteen miles from Paris.
This building-up process is not SO
easy as it sounds, for the sand has to be
applied in little chunks, varying in size
but all fitting snugly together, SO that
they can be taken apart when the i'm
preston is complete and the mold is
dry.
in an elaborate casting there will be
from fifteen hundred to two thousand
accurately adjusted, or the casting will
be imperfect. The most noticeable
feature in a bronze foundry is the num-
Der of workmen employed in cutting
up little chunks of the sand and care
fully and tenderly fitting them around
the plaster model. These worzmen,
by the way, are imported along with
the sand, the majority of them being
French.
The blocks of sand being dry, they
are carefully taken off the cast one by
one, and as carefully reftted. This is
the mold. 1t is then filed with clay,
and when the clay is dry the little
blocks forming the mold are again un-
fitted, and fac-simile of the plaster
cast is obtained. Then comes the most
delicate part of the work. The clay
model has to be reduced by scraping un-
| til it is an exact but slightly smaller
copy of the plaster model, for a quar-
ter of an inch has to be taken off it's
entire surface, and the difficulty of do
| ing this can be imagined, especially
when the subject is at all ornate. As
suming thereduction of the clay "core, -
as it is technically termed, to be salts
factory, the core is introduced into the
mold, which has again been put to-
gether, and there is naturally space
of quarter of an inch between the ex-
terror of the core and the interior of
the mold. The core is stayed with
iron rods so that it remains rigid in the
center of the mold, and the glowing
molten bronze is poured in from the
top and completely fills up the space
between the core and the mold; after
it has cooled the mold is removed and
the clay interior extracted, and the
statue is revealed, somewhat rough, it
is true, but very nearly as it will ap-
pear before the public.
The Astor doors of Trinity church
took three years to complete, good
contrast to which may be found, as re-
| CARDS time of execution, in the Wash
ington statue in front of the subtreas-
ury on Wall street, which was COM
p1eted in six weeks and two days.
Speaking of the Washington statue,
1 every one has nc ticed the bright color,
or ''patina,' as it is called, of the legs
of the Father of His Country, while the
rest of the body is as grimy as all the
other bronze statues in New York city.
This is due to the rubbing of the
shoulders of street boys and loafers.
The founders of the statue say they
would make them handsome present
if they would rub the rest of the great
mans body, for ''patina" acquired in
this way is superior to any that can be
given artifcially.
The statue that gave the most trouble
to the founders, and at the same time
is one of the most artistic and beauti-
J full specimens of bronze casting in the
country, is Mr.. J. Q. A. Wards statue
of President Garfield, in Washington.
The nude figures around the statue are
responsible for the difficulty of casting.
The alloy commonly used for statue
casting consists of ninety parts copper,
seven tin and three zinc; that used by
! the ancient Greeks being eighty cop.
, per and twenty tin. At the time Of
Pausanias they were the first to do any
bronze casting; previously articles Of
ornament were made by riveting sheets
of bronze together in the same way
hat the statue of Liberty is construct
ID.