Giant Hand: Molecule Master.

Giant Hand: Molecule Master

Emerging from the outdoor entrance plaza of the Eastman Chemical Company is a giant human-fractal arm and hand with strings on its fingers, dangling a molecule. This vision of slightly inhuman chemists as puppet-masters may please the PhDs inside the building, but it presents a disquieting image to lesser beings driving by on the adjacent highway.

The sculpture is officially titled "The Old Hand," and the molecule is methanol. The sculpture is 23 feet high, weighs three tons, and is made of hundreds of welded metal plates. Eastman Chemical Company began in 1920 by distilling methanol from wood pulp. At the time, during Prohibition, methanol was in demand as an additive to make industrial alcohol poisonous.

Giant Hand: Molecule Master

Eastman Chemical Company

Address:: 200 S. Wilcox Drive, Kingsport, TN
Directions:: Outside the front entrance of the Eastman Chemical Company. I-26 exit 4, then drive northeast on TN-126 for 2.5 miles. You'll see the large steel-and-glass building on the right. Turn right into the parking lot and drive to the front entrance.

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In the region:

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