Statue of Liberty
in New York Harbour
The statue, Liberty Enlightening the World, was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.
See here for Bartholdi's account of the design and construction of the statue.[1]
From Engineering 1886/12/10: 'In the construction of this statue it was decided
to make it of repousse or hammered copper. A
model was first made one-sixteenth the size, and
after all the details had been worked out it
enlarged to one-fourth the size, and subsequently
a full-sized model was constructed, divided into
sections to facilitate handling. The one-fourth
sized model was divided into sections, and each
section into squares, and measuring points established,
some parts requiring as many as 300 such points
with 1200 extra marks. Wooden frames were constructed and plaster put upon them (see Fig. 1);
measurements increased four times were taken
from the sections of the model, and the shape
carefully marked out and moulded, wooden
frames were then made by fitting the edges of the
boards to the inequalities of the plaster.
The sheets of copper, 300 in all, were put upon
the inside of these frames and beaten by wooden
mallets into a fac-simile of each section,
braces were put inside the statue, and the frame work upon which the copper plates were to go was scientifically planned as a bridge would be to resist strains of various kinds; to prevent electrical action due to the salt air acting upon the two metals, canvas cloth is introduced between them where the rivetting takes place. ....'