BRONZE AND BRASS WORK. There is a strong tendency at present to obliterate, or to regard as merely nominal, the distinction be tween these two alloys. As a matter of fact, they approximate each other in composition, and to a considerable extent overlap in uses. The following table, published in the Journal of the Society of Constructors of Federal Buildings, Brattleboro, March 1916, may be taken as rep resenting present-day views of the varied range of alloys under the general terms °brass* and °bronze.* Note the different alloys used in °statuary bronze': Copper Tin Zinc Lead Statue of Louis XV (Paris) 82.4 4.0 10.30 3.2 Statue of Henry IV (Paris) 89.6 5.7 4.2 0.5 Statue of Napoleon I (Paris) 75.0 3.0 2.0 2.0 Column Vendome 89.2 10.2 0.5 0.1 Bacchus (Potsdom palace) 89.4 7.5 1.63 1.0 Munich bronze 77.03 0.91 19.12 0.12 The most important present-day uses of bronze are those classified under the two gen eral headings of sculptural and architectural bronze work. The long lists of such works include statues (from the small figures so com monly used as interior ornaments to the colos sal equestrian statues), memorial tablets and windows, doors (often elaborately orna mented), lecterns, wrought bronze-and-brass entrance gates or vestibule gates and bronze chancel-rail or altar gates, grilles, hall-screens, lamp-standards, elevator enclosures and ele vator doors, counter-screens, check-desks, cage work and safe-deposit screens in banks, flag pole bases, large clocks that are made a part of the architectural scheme, stair railings, sar cophagi, tripods, urns, sun dials, balcony rail ings and domes — such as that made for the Armour mausoleum. In the United States no bronze statue was cast prior to the year 1847, and the earliest productions, about the middle of the 19th century, lacked perfection for the reason that the assistance of professional found ers with European training was not available at that time. A portrait statue by Bale Hughes and Henry Kirke Brown's "Indian and Panther° are the earliest examples known. A great im petus was given to sculptural art when the gov ernment of the United States ordered bronze doors for the National Capitol. Randolph Rogers and Thomas Crawford were chosen to do this work. The former modeled his doors in Europe, and they were cast in 1861. The Crawford doors were hung in 1868. Louis Amateis designed the third and last pair of bronze doors for the main entrance to the Capitol at Washington (cast in 1910). The three sets of bronze doors in the main entrance of the Boston Public Library are the work of Daniel Chester French. Of the three sets of sculptured bronze doors for the main entrance of the Congressional Library at Washington, one was modeled by Herbert Adams, one by Olin L. Warner and the third by Frederick MacMonnies. Large cast bronze grille entrance
doors, designed by Richard M. Hunt for a resi dence at Newport, R. I., were made in New York (1892) at a cost of $50,000. Their meas urements are: width, 22 feet, and height, 14 feet. The total weight of bronze in the dome of the Armour mausoleum, designed by Ren wick, Aspinwall and Owen, is 16 tons. Orna mental bronze work for the interior of build ings is given a coating of transparent lacquer that preserves the polish and finish for a num ber of years. But lacquer cannot be used to protect the surfaces of bronze statuary or other bronze work exposed to the weather; on the contrary, new bronze statuary placed out-of doors is oxidized with chemicals, so that the glaring appearance of the new metal is sub dued.
No presentation of this part of our subject, however brief, can be satisfactory unless at tention is called to the emphasis that is now being laid on craftmanship. The art of the bronze founder, as practised today, possesses, in the words of one of its exponents, a subtle charm for the lover of craftsmanship. "The finished product of his skill strongly impresses the thoughtful observet, for the statue or sculp tured object in plaster or other material, while the embodiment of the sculptor's genius, lacks something which only the bronze can give— the glow of color and feeling of imperishable ness." Another leader in this field makes a strong appeal for craftsmanship, expressing the belief that bronze and brass are attaining their highest artistic development, and that the craftsmen "only need opportunity, unhampered by the tendency toward commercialization of their art" to demonstrate their artistic ability beyond dispute. (Consult The American Aran" tect, 27 June 1917, Vol. CXI, pp. 399-404). Briefly, authorities on sculptural and architec tural bronze insist to-day that craftsmanship, or painstaking, artistic and technical care given to each separate work, is all important. On the mechanical side, we may mention, as one of the most important modern developments in the bronze industry, an English invention — the so called "extrusion process° of wrought shapes, by which extruded metal (a special alloy) is produced by forcing a billet of the metal, in a semi-molten state, through a steel die by hy draulic pressure. Another modern development of the bronze industry is along the line of vol taic deposition of pure copper upon prepared moulds or over a prepared model—the gal vano-plastic method. Still another compara tively new process is the Gorham special (Smith) process of casting, which has been developed from a silver-casting process, is now used on objects up to 36 or 40 inches in length, and reproduces the plastic mould and form faithfully without chasing or hand-finishing.