Bolt of Lightning: A Memorial to Benjamin Franklin

Ben Franklin’s experiment with a kite in a thunderstorm proved that lightning was a form of electricity. Photo by Jim Murphy, author of Real Philly History, Real Fast.

“He snatched lighting from the sky and the scepter from tyrants.”  -- Anne- Robert-Jacques Turgot 

Approved 46 years later

In 1933, Isamu Noguchi had an idea: to create a huge sculpture portraying Ben Franklin’s lighting experiment, where he flew a kite in a thunderstorm. In 1979, 46 years later, at a retrospective of Noguchi’s work, the Association for Public Art relooked at that idea and commissioned it!

You can see the results for yourself. From what I’ve read, I’m not certain it could have been successfully constructed in 1933. But engineering and metallurgy improved.

Noguchi said later, “When I designed it, I never thought it could be built, structurally. But one can dream things, yes?”

They sure can.

Dimensions:

Height: 101’5″ (base, including “key, 37’7″; l

Lightning: 45’4″; kite structure: 23’4”; base area 32′ x 32′

Weight: 58 tons

Location: Base of the Ben Franklin Bridge.

Some Sources:

https://billypenn.com/2024/06/11/ben-franklin-bolt-of-sculpture-philly-anniversary/

https://www.associationforpublicart.org/artwork/bolt-of-lightning-a-memorial-to-benjamin-franklin/