SILHOUETTE, a name applied to the black profile portraits, com monly known simply as profiles or shades. The latter name indicates the origin of this simple class of pictorial representations, they having been probably suggested by the shadow thrown upon a wall. The name silhouette has been said to he derived from Etienne do Silhouette, French minister of finance in 1759. It appears that several parsi monious fashions introduced during his administration, in order, by severe economy, to remedy the evils of a war that had just terminated, were called, after this minister, it /a Silhouette, and that the name has continued to be applied to one of them—the use of profiles in shade.
Silhouettes are executed in various ways. One of the simplest is that of tracing the outlines of a shadow thrown on a sheet of paper, and then reducing them to the required size, either by the eye or by means of a pantograph. [Passrooneen.] The camera-obscura and camera lucida are also occasionally used for the purpose. A more certain mode of obtaining an accurate outline is by the use of the machine invented for the purpose by Mr. Schmalcalder, and patented by him in 1806. The principle of this machine is very simple, and may be readily understood by the aid of the annexed diagram. a it is an inflexible rod, usually about nine or ten feet long, supported by a ball-and-socket joint at c, in such a manner as to leave the suds free to move in any direction. At the end a, a tracer, which is tapered off to a fine point, is attached to the rod, so as to form a continuation of it; while at the opposite end, b, a steel point is similarly fixed. The per son whose profile is required is seated, in the position indicated in the cut, in a chair having a rest for the back of the head, in order that lie may sit perfectly still, while the operator gently passes the side of the tracer, a, over his features. By the intervention of the universal joint (or of a double-swivel joint) at c, a perfectly similar motion is commu nicated to the steel point at b, although, owing to the pivot being placed nearer to it than to the other end of the rod, it moves in a path smaller than that of time tracer a. The pivot c being stationary, the
steel point at it moves in the arc of a circle of which it (the pivot) is the centre, as indicated by the dotted line in the diagram ; and there fore, in order to keep the paper always in contact with it, it is fixed on a swinging board, pivoted at d, and constantly pressed against the steel point by means of a weight or spring, with a sufficient degree of force to make it act efficiently. The steel point does not come into imme diate contact with the white paper, but with a piece of blacked paper placed over it, the pressure of the point transferring a sufficient quan tity of the colour to form a distinct line. This part of the operation resembles that of a manifold writer ; and, as in that instrument, several copies may be produced simultaneously, by using a number of pieces of white and blacked paper, Laid alternately upon the swinging board. The size of the reduced outline drawn on the paper may be regulated by varying the relative proportions of and c b ; this sod several other adjustments being effected by apparatus which it is unnecessary here to detail. By means of a cord, ere, held in the hand of the operator, the swinging board d may be drawn back from the steel point when it is required to more the rod without making a mark upon the paper. Greater accuracy may be attained by substituting for the tracer a thin wire, tightly stretched In a bow, and adjusted so AS to coincide per fectly with the axis of the rod. In some cases a kind of knife is substituted for the steel point at b, and the profile is thus cut out of a piece of thin black paper placed ou the swinging board. Some profiliste display considerable talent in cutting silhouettes by hand, with a pair of scissors, out of piece's of black paper, without the assistance of an outline.