Nineteen years after his death, Philo T. Farnsworth is finally on his way to his permanent home at the nation's Capitol - at least in bronze replica.
The 7-foot, 6-inch bronze statue of Farnsworth, the inventor of television, was loaded into a van Monday for the trip to Washington, D.C.Farnsworth will be placed in Statuary Hall as Utah's second entry into the famous chamber. He will join Brigham Young who was first placed in the hall in 1950 to represent Utah.
Atlas Van Lines will deliver Farnsworth free of charge to the Capitol April 30. The statue will be placed in the Capitol Rotunda May 1 with a celebration that night and dedication ceremony slated for May 2.
President Gordon B. Hinckley, first counselor in the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will dedicate the statue. Gov. Norm Bangerter and Utah's congressmen will also be on hand during the two-day celebration.
The statue will remain in the rotunda for six months and will then be placed in the hall next to a Montana congresswoman who voted against U.S. entry into World War II, said Rick Sorensen, a member of the Philo T. Farnsworth Commission.
"It took us three years to get to this point," he said. The commission was appointed by the governor in 1987 after state legislators passed a bill nominating Farnsworth as Utah's second Statuary Hall entry.
Using an impressionist style, Salt Lake artist James Avati spent a year just making the model for the 700-pound statue. Sorensen said the texture of the statue sets it apart from all other statues in the hall.
"We have been thoroughly pleased with the quality of work James Avati did," he said.
Farnsworth was sculpted as a working inventor and holds his invention, the dissector tube, in his hands. The statue will sit atop a 900-pound block of Italian scurro marble.
Farnsworth was selected as Utah's second Statuary Hall honoree because he was the "greatest scientist of his era," Sorensen said. Although he has ties to Idaho, Farnsworth grew up near Beaver and further developed the concept of television while a faculty member at Brigham Young University.
"He was heavily involved here, and we feel we have a legitimate claim to Philo," Sorensen said.
About $250,000 in private donations funded the project, which was completed at Wasatch Bronzeworks in Lehi.
The base of the statue will be unloaded on the west side of the Capitol via a forklift, and the statue will be carried up the steps of the Capitol by six men, said Neil Hadlock, owner of Wasatch Bronzeworks.
A second statue of Farnsworth will be installed at the state Capitol on July 24 after a ride in the Days of '47 Parade.