NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE. (continued 3)

Paper seems, at first sight, to be the material best adapted for the reproduction of models; but no one has succeeded well enough with it to bring it into use. Like nearly all those who have given this subject attention, I have experimented with paper, but the only positive result has been a loss of a large part of the confidence that I once had in the suitability of the material. Paper has been used extensively for large scale models of pueblos, ruins, etc., but I have never obtained a satisfactory result with subjects in low relief and fine detail. A paper cast may look well when first made, but it absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, and contracts and expands with the weather. The contraction is apt to flatten out the model and the expansion to make it buckle up.

Casts of models have been made in iron; but this, while suitable perhaps for models of mounds and subjects of like character, would hardly be applicable to small scale models with fine detail; such casts require too much surface finishing. The material known as Lincrusta-Walton seems to me to be the ideal material for this purpose. It is tougher than rubber, will take the finest detail, and its surface can be treated in any way desired. Unfortunately the manufacture of models in this material would require expensive machinery, and is outside the scope of a modeling room. Should it ever become commercially advantageous, however, casts of a model of ordinary size, in every way equal to the original, can be turned out in this material at a very small cost.

It remains to speak of the reproduction of models by process-engravings—a method that will probably receive much more attention in the future than it has in the past. It is perhaps along this line that the cheap reproduction of models will develop; but the subject is too large a one to be adequately treated here, and must be postponed until some future occasion.

HACHURED AND CONTOURED MAPS. REPRESENTATION OF A HILL ACCORDING TO THE TWO SYSTEMS AND ON DIFFERENT SCALES. From Supplement to Enthoffer's Topographical Atlas by permission of Mr. Enthoffer.

FROM BUTLER'S COMPLETE GEOGRAPHY.

COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY E. H. BUTLER & CO.

Printed by permission.