Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/890

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��The First Step

Captain Derwent Wood, an English sculptor, has worked out a method of covering disfiguring scars by metal masks painted in life-like colors. The meth- od is not new, but has been greatly improved by the sculptor. The first step toward restoring the patient's features consists in making a plaster cast of the parts to be covered by the mask. This is a great boon to the disfigured fighter, although he may well be proud of his scars

��Almost Finished

The thin metal mask, having been carefully fitted and trimmed to the proper size and shape, is enameled and painted to match the color of the patient's skin. The pic- ture shows Captain Wood with the almost finished mabk in his hand, about to adjust it to the features of the patient before him. The means for fastening the mask are still lacking

���The Rough Cast

The masks are male by an electrolytic deposit of pure copper upon a cast of the features as they ar ■• intended to appear. They may also be made ot silver or of some ailoy of silver and copper. In the pi - ture Captain Wood i examining the rough molded mask before it trimmed, adjusted ar finished by enameling and painting. Great skill i^ rc'iuired in order to matdi perfectly the lineament - and complexion of tlic uninjured side of the fac-

��The Finishing Touch

After all the prelimiii.iry work is done and the mask fully completed anil i>n>- vided with the means of fasteiiing it, the patient puts it on and the sculp- tor, who is also a painter, inits the fiiii.-^liing touches to his handiwork. One of the most difiicult prob- lems is to obliterate the tell-tale border line where the mask and the skin meet. This is done by careful retouching of the painted surface. The manner of holding the mask in place depends uiKin the conditions in e.u'li individual case. In this case it is held in place by a pair of spectacles

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