The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1920-01-04

SCULPTOR POURS
STONE IN MOlDS
Zolnay Perfects Synthetic
Material Almost as Cheap
As Plaster.
FINISH LIKE BRONZE
Discoverer Calls Boon to
Plastic Art ''Petronite" In
Honor of Co-Worker.

BY way OF sowing one OF the
greatest problems in the develop
ment of a national art, George
Julian Zolnay. sculptor. has recently
completed some interesting expert
ments In. his studio at lbs N street
northwest For years sculptors have
recognized the need of plastic
substance for reproduction which
would be as beautiful and as endur-
ing as bronze or marble and yet as
inexpensive as the frailest Of me-
dipms. Today Zolnay is making
casts which will stand the closest
scrutiny in a material which costs
but a tribe more than plaster.
The new material will be called
''Petronite." 1t is synthetic stone, the
name derived from that of a chemist
with whom the sculptor has expert
mented with a new liquid used in the
manufacture of bricks and other stone
work. It remained for the sculptor
chemist to make something tougher
than stone, which could be poured
into molds and take a permanent
and beautiful finish.
ZoInay Describes Product.
Describing its qualities, Zolnay
says:
Mature requires thousands of years
to make stone. The process OF crys-
taliZatiou under pressure takes years
and years to reach IL climax and then
the stone thus formed begins to dis
integrate.
What have done is simply to use
natures way of making stone.
strengthen it so that it will not chip
and accelerate the process Petronif"'
takes but thirty days to harden suffi-
GENTLY for permanency. and after that
continues the capitalization in the
natural manner, requiring hundreds
Of years to reach the turning point.
Zolnay, widely known as a sculp-
tor. paints and draws and Is recog-
mixed as master of the violin. Also
he is as much at home in laboratory
as in a studio.
He came to Washington from the
Middle west about six years ago, and
has been at work on his project ever
since. His first experiments were
for the purpose Of making 4 better
plastic material for use in. the re-
production Of studies for school work.
This he did while director of the
Art Academy maintained by the
American woman's League, in Uni
yersity City, and it was a compar-
stively simple attainment.
His first result was to produce a
synthetic bone. which, whne excel
lent for reproduction of indoor sculp-
ture. will not withstand prolonged ex-
posture to weather conditions.
Success Crowns Efforts
Yesterday Zolnay Informed a rep
resentative OF The Washington Her
aid that he had succeeded beyond
question in making and pouring syn
thetic stone. Never until yesterday
has he been able to pour the ma
terial successfully.
To produce a material as hard as
metal. as tough as stone, which
would finish up with all the richness
Of color and shade to be found in
bronze-this was the artists problem
fn the be ginninC. But the final sue
cess depended entirely upon making
the material pourable as plaster. zol-
nav not only makes stone in a mold.
but controls its coloring and its quail
ity OF finish.
As il now stands this substance will
take a finish as beautiful as bronze
and such objects as portrait busts
repIicas OF famous statuary. artistic
products OF the sculptor's art, which
hitherto had to be reproduced in g
medium so expensive as to make the
best sculpture prohibitive for the
masses. now will be obtainable in
"Petronite" at a minimum cost.
4Zolnay's best known works ir
Washington are the frieze on the Cen
al High School and the Sequoyah al
the Capitol. But his work Is to be
found from coast to coast. The La
clede monument in st. Louis. the Win
rie Davis Memorial in Richmond. Va.
Edgar Allen Poe statue at the Uni
versity Of Virginia, and Commerce
and Industry on the United States
Customs House in San Francisco are
the best known.