we always see a statue of a man on a
horse with a sword or we see a line but
it's put on a shield and says but when
you come into New York Harbor and you
see the symbol of America it's a lady
with a torch of hope and torch of
freedom that's why we call her lady and
we refer to her lady because she's not a
statue to us the Statue of Liberty was a
gift from the people of France to the
people of America in 1886 she represents
their shared ideals of liberty freedom
and equality now enshrouded by a maze of
scaffolding Miss Liberty is getting a
complete refurbishment from pedestal to
torch next 4th of July to commemorate
the 100th anniversary Liberty will be
among many rejuvenating measures
designed to repair the ravages of a
century and ensure miss Liberty's
long-term survival is a protective
coating for her superstructure the
coating originated in NASA research on
corrosion resistant materials at the
Goddard Space Flight Center Liberty's
designer French sculptor Frederic
Auguste Bartholdi once boasted that his
creation would last as long as the
pyramids of the Nile to ensure a very
sound in her framework for his statue
we're told they went into partnership
with Gustave Eiffel well known for his
Eiffel Tower attached to the four main
Calathes that act as spinal cords and
this box secondary framing comparable to
a rib case attached to this framing our
armature bars which in a sense like the
tendons and ligaments if you support
Liberty's exterior copper skin the man
responsible for restoring the statues
interior maze of framework Viktor
Strauss when the pavement affair various
paint manufacturers came out of various
other things and looked at the statue
they all said we don't know how you're
gonna get it or how you gonna get it
clean to accept the coatings
but American technology is still on top
Cody
that when we tried an experiment it far
exceeded all the other coatings and it's
interesting that the coating of
masteries which I distinguish used on
the gantry to take off for our
recitation is being used now to help
preserve freedom the symbol of freedom
all American dr. John shut of the
Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt
Maryland explains the reason for the
inorganic paints development in 1971 at
that time it was a spinoff of our work
directed toward the development of
coatings to protect spacecraft from the
rigors of the space environment
ultraviolet light and electron and
proton showers the inorganic paint
consists of a water-based
silicate find it - which zinc is added
after a section of the statues main
supports is clinging down to the bare
metal the quick drying paint is applied
layer by layer
aside from restoring the statues
interior framework there are many other
phases of reconstruction to be
considered Liberty's interior copper
skin will be clean and it seems received
to improve weather resistance statues
overall structure is in the process of
being refortified by replacing hundreds
of
armature bars which support the copper
skin the 20-foot spikes along Liberty's
crown representing the world's seven
continents and seven seas will also be
replaced and finally a new torch is
being constructed by a team of French
workmen skilled in the nearly lost art
of metal shaking called represent the
restoration effort for Miss Liberty was
initiated in 1980 by a French American
committee and spearheaded by Chrysler
Chairman Lee Iacocca
buns coming from thousands colormaster
nasa's space technology helping to
preserve a symbol of America's heritage