For your viewing enjoyment . . .
Loved by some as a major landmark and hated by others as a monstrous
"eyesore," Kokomo Gas & Fuel demolished its enormous 48 year old natural
gas tower shortly after dawn at 7:30 AM on Sunday, September 7th. No small
feat considering it was 378 feet tall and 218 feet in diameter. There was
considerably less land around it than would hold it (height and diameter)
if it were laid on its side. It had to be telescoped into itself and
allowed to slide slightly in a very specific direction to keep from hitting
surrounding structures. The tower could be seen up to 20 miles away if
there was a clear view of the horizon in Kokomo's direction. Several weeks
were spent preparing the tower for its destruction before bringing it down
completely.
At zero-dark-thirty on Sunday morning, I loaded up an OM-4 with a full roll
of Kodachrome 64, put on a Winder 2 and 300mm f/4.5 Zuiko lens, and mounted
it on a tripod about a mile from the tower to photograph the demise of this
major landmark that dominated Kokomo's skyline. Fired off one frame to
test everything, and fired off a second a couple minutes before the charges
to bring the tower down were detonated. Watched the charges on the sides
of the tower using binoculars to look for the flashes of the primers as I
knew it would be very nearly over before I heard the concussion of the
blasts. The remaining 35 frames were fired in sequence mode at 5 frames
per second, and 7 seconds just barely covered the entire collapse.
Put together a web page with six of the 35 frames, including the first and
last, spanning the tower's collapse . . . and yes, the images are cropped
to about half their original size. They were shot horizontal not knowing
how far the tower would slide off to the north (right, as seen in the
photographs):
http://johnlind.tripod.com/gastower/gastower.html
Enjoy!
-- John
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|