There is a multitude of anecdotes to tell around the Statue of Liberty. Here are some that deserve your attention.
It was not always green!
And yes, because it is made of copper, and the copper when it oxidizes, it becomes green. This means that its construction, the copper plates being in good condition, not oxidized, the statue was the natural color of copper. She has been red-orange for the first 30 years of its existence. It was after she turned green.
It contains the declaration of independence of the United States
Yes, but a copy, of course. And it is not about to read it again because it was sealed in the stones of the base
, together with some objects that belonged to the members present at the opening of the base.
From mid-2012 to mid-2013, it has been open to the public one day
And it was not planned! The work of repairs that took place in 2012 ended on 28 October 2012, when the statue was reopened to the public. Alas, the day after Hurricane Sandy struck New York and again damaged the statue, which was closed again for renovation, repair this time. One can imagine the happiness of the lucky who visited the statue October 28, 2012.
The statue has given rise to the word "Gadget"
This is true, and this is due to phonetic diversion name workshops were held in which part of the work, the workshops "Gaget, Gauthier and Company". To fund the base of the statue in the United States, the project sponsors diffused large-scale photographs of the arm of Miss Liberty, which were exhibited in New York, on the occasion of "the Centennial Exhibition" (from the declaration of independence in 1876). There were also small items, all associated to Gaget workshops. "Do you have your Gaget?" became a sentence-type exhibition. Little by little, the "gadget" modern was born.
The Americans do not know that the statue is French
Yes, and for the French it's pretty amazing. Not for the Americans, always quick to appropriate what is happening on their territory. In 1986, for the centenary of the statue, a survey of a representative sample of Americans indicated that only 2% of Americans knew that the statue was French. Yes, only 2%, and in 1986!
There is a relationship between Vauban and the Statue of Liberty
Again this is true, and they are not so far apart from each other than that. The statue is on Bedloe's island, which had a small military fort to defend the port of New York. It was built between 1806 and 1811 in a plane directly from Vauban fortresses, the French minister of Louis XIV, who built many strong following that model. For example, that of Mont-Louis in the Pyrenees-Orientales (France). Just look at an aerial photograph of the statue to see the remains of the fort and its star shape at 11 branches, typical of the architecture of the architect of the king of France in the eighteenth century.
The statue produces electricity
No, but it could. This is a chemical reaction well known to physicists: When copper is in contact with iron, and a catalyst comes into play, it occurs an electric shock. Now in the Statue of Liberty, there is a large amount of contact points between the internal structure of iron and copper coating. As for the catalyst, it's just the salt contained in sea water! Each heavy swell ambient moisture into the statue and causes multiple arcs. Technicians palliated this problem by adding asbestos to the contact points iron-copper, so that the statue has never actually produces electricity, but it could have. (see Construction of the statue)
