Investigating the Giant Pi at Danbury’s Henry Abbott Tech

Why is there a twenty foot tall sculpture of the symbol for Pi in front of Danbury's Henry Abbott Technical High School? I've done some digging, and I have some answers.

I attended Northeast Wrestling's Hat City Havoc II this past Saturday evening at Danbury's Henry Abbott Technical High School. I had never been to the school, and the first thing that caught my attention was the 20 foot tall metal sculpture of PI that stands right in front. Giant Pi reminded me of the cross at Waterbury's Holy Land USA, with multi-colored lights inside of a giant metal sculpture. I started to ask questions about it, but everyone had a different answer.

I was curious: Why Pi? Who was Henry Abbott?

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Most teachers and students that I spoke with knew that Henry Abbott was an inventor, and his inventions had something to do with the watch industry. The man that the school is named after, Henry G. Abbott, was born in Waterbury, Connecticut in 1850. Abbott was an inventor, and was best known for the calculagraph, a machine used to record elapsed time. Abbott was also responsible for the accurate mechanical timing of long distance phone calls, according to newspapers.com, and held over 50 patents for improvements in the manufacturing of watches. Abbott passed away in 1943 at the age of 93. Contrary to what I imagined, Abbott did not invent Pi.

What I did find out about Abbott Tech's giant Pi is this - The sculpture has been there since the late 2000's, it was commissioned as part of a series of sculptures that stand in front of Connecticut's Technical schools, and at one point almost 500 Abbot Tech students attempted to break the world record for the largest human Pi symbol. A 20 foot high Wolverine would look so cool next to Giant Pi though.