The text of this Kindle edition, equivalent in length to a physical book of approximately 16 pages, originally appeared in the United States Department of the Interior’s “National Park Service Historical Handbook Number Eleven: The Statue of Liberty.” Learn how the colossal symbol of welcome to immigrants, a gift from France to the United States commemorating their alliance during the American Revolution, was conceived, financed, built, transported, and dedicated.
Sample passage:
To get the form for the statue, Bartholdi made what is called the study model, measuring 1.25 meters, or about four feet in height. This was cast and recast. From this model was reproduced a statue having a height of 2.85 meters. By this method another model four times larger was obtained, giving the figure a height of 11 meters, or 36 feet. This model was corrected down to the most minute detail. Then the statue was divided into a large number of sections, each of which was also to be reproduced four times its size. These reproductions, when joined together, were destined for the colossal statue in its finished form.
Only a comparatively small portion of such a gigantic statue could be worked on at a time. Section by section, the 36-foot model was enlarged to four times its size. For each section of the enlarged model it was necessary to take about 9,000 separate measurements. When a section was finished, the carpenters made wooden molds.
Sample passage:
To get the form for the statue, Bartholdi made what is called the study model, measuring 1.25 meters, or about four feet in height. This was cast and recast. From this model was reproduced a statue having a height of 2.85 meters. By this method another model four times larger was obtained, giving the figure a height of 11 meters, or 36 feet. This model was corrected down to the most minute detail. Then the statue was divided into a large number of sections, each of which was also to be reproduced four times its size. These reproductions, when joined together, were destined for the colossal statue in its finished form.
Only a comparatively small portion of such a gigantic statue could be worked on at a time. Section by section, the 36-foot model was enlarged to four times its size. For each section of the enlarged model it was necessary to take about 9,000 separate measurements. When a section was finished, the carpenters made wooden molds.
