Leseprobe

Julia Bienholz- guessed. Certain, however, is that this resulted in a simplification of production, as a straight back and legs aligned parallel are after all easier to replicate than an angle and contrapposto. The simplified body shape was only one component of the ration- alisation measures introduced in the “Transparent Figures” workshop in the 1950s, which would remain in place until the end of production. Other changes to this end included: ❚ a vacuum moulding system was installed in the workshop for the manufacture of the skin, for which the plastic plates had previous- ly been warmed with steam with some difficulty. This meant that larger skin sections could be shaped, like for the torso and legs. 32 ❚ The design of the bloodstream and the neural pathways was stan- dardised. To this purpose, template books were created, in which their production was explained step by step. 33 ❚ Gauges were introduced for the assembly of the skeleton, among other tasks, with which the positioning of the joints and the form of the ribs were specified. 34 Smaller innovations were also regularly introduced in subsequent years. Thus, for example, the skull was initially cast from an alumini- um alloy before a skull of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which was sold as an independent model, was installed. 35 The Transparent Figures could be produced more uniformly, more efficiently and thus more affordably with these measures. As a consequence, the DHMD was able to manufacture more than 20 Transparent Humans by the end of the 1950s and sell many of these worldwide. Fig. 4 Two completed Transparent Figures with a new body shape and posture, photo- graphs, 1949/50, inv. no. 2014/860.35, 2014/860.36 22