#PATINA GREEN HOME AND MARKET HOW TO#

(Although the air pollutants that cause acid rain can lead to respiratory and heart problems.)īut as we’ll see, it has an impact on other ecosystems. Not so acidic that it has any direct impact on human health – the acid is too dilute for you, your skin, or your clothes to notice. How we figured out that rain had become acidicĪcid rain is rain, sleet, or snow that has high levels of sulfuric or nitric acids in it.

#PATINA GREEN HOME AND MARKET HOW TO#

Acid rain – and the pollution that causes it – is still a problem in many middle–income countries, but thankfully we know how to fix it. The reason that there are still recognizable (albeit disfigured) statues left is that we managed to stop it. Human-caused acid rain is to blame for this damage. Take a look at the botched restoration efforts of one statue in Palencia in Spain: once a beautiful sculpture of a woman and her livestock, it now looks like a five year old’s creation from Play-Doh. Not even the cherubs were spared.Īnd if you think it’s easy to restore them, think again. Limestone and marble monuments of kings, queens, and the ancient Greeks have had their faces melted off. Her green is now legendary, so we might consider the government’s ignorance to be a fortunate mistake.īut many other sculptures and buildings have been ruined. Needless to say, the outside of Miss Liberty was never painted. By architects and artists generally this color effect is considered the type of perfection for this kind of metal.’ What had been created was a landmark that artists could only hope to replicate: ‘You may be surprised to know that for years we have been trying to imitate the color effect of the Statue of Liberty by artificial means in our copper work. As one put it: ‘I think my attention has never been called to a greater bit of proposed vandalism than this.’ He went on to explain that the patina wasn’t a threat to the sculpture, but a protective layer for the copper underneath. When The New York Times revealed the plans in a piece titled ‘To Paint Miss Liberty!’ there was a public outcry.Ī week later the Times reporter spoke to artists and architects to get their feedback on the plan and published the findings in a follow-up. It wanted to paint the Statue of Liberty to protect it. By 1906, Congress was concerned that this was not a patina but corrosion. It was widely used as a green pigment in paintings.īut if they did expect a color change, their reaction suggested otherwise. Humans have known about verdigris for centuries, if not longer. The patina that forms on copper is ‘verdigris’, a green–blue pigment. The government should have expected this change in shade. When the Statue of Liberty was built – and in the decades that followed – New York’s air was thick with sulfur from coal burning, which reacts with copper to form copper sulfide and sulfate, changing its color. The key pollutant in this mix was sulfur. But when copper reacts with oxygen and the right mix of pollutants, it takes on a green-blue hue.

When it was first unveiled in 1886, it was a classic copper. The Statue of Liberty has not always been its iconic green.

Patina green home and market