<![CDATA[io9: sheffield]]> http://tags.lifehacker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/io9.com.png <![CDATA[io9: sheffield]]> http://io9.com/tag/sheffield http://io9.com/tag/sheffield <![CDATA[The Pyrotechnic Tragedy of Sheffield's Hyperbolic Cooling Towers]]> Over the weekend, an industrial-age legend was blown up — literally — in Sheffield, England. The Tinsley water cooling towers, two hourglass-shaped, 250-foot-tall structures, were built almost 70 years ago as part of a long-demolished power plant. Several local artists tried to convert the abandoned structures into art projects, but the lonely hulks were instead blown up by a company that is replacing them with a biomass power station. Thousands of people gathered to watch the towers blown up, and now you can see the tragic carnage too.




A spokesperson for E.ON, the company building the biomass power station to replace the Tinsley towers, told the UK Guardian:

One tower went down perfectly. The second only came down partially, a third [of it] was left standing - not exactly what we hoped for. There were rumours they hit the motorway. But when the dust cleared the Highways Agency said there was absolutely no debris on the [nearby M1] motorway. One of our teams chipped away at the concrete where it had become stuck and it finally came down at 5.30am.

Photos by Christopher Furlong/Getty.

Thousands Watch Fall of Tinsley Towers [UK Guardian]

]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5041180&view=rss&microfeed=true