HUGE GREENHOUSE BLOWM UP.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLI, Issue 9291, 12 August 1920, Page 7

HUGE GREENHOUSE BLOWM UP.

The Duke of Devonshire has discovered how to get rid of a conservatory. At Chatsworth, the Duke's ancestral home (and a "show place" visited by thousands of tourists) there was a conservatory which was the finest and the largest in the kingdom—a crystal palace among conservatories, indeed. And curiously enough it was designed by Sir Joseph Paxton, the man by whom the Crystal Palace was created. Owing to labour conditions and the coal shortage the wonderful conservatory had been closed aiid sold as so much scrap. It is very scrappy now. The problem was how to demolish the thousand tons of ironwork and the 40,----000; panes of glass. Experts discussed the puzzle. They probably came to the conclusion that to do it by hand would take years. So they decided to blow it up. One" hundred and fifty pounds of explosives were used—enough' to blow up three Tower Bridges. The explosion was terrific, and was heard seven miles away. And the scene at.the blowing up was indescribable. Billions of particles of broken glass and other- debris came down in showers over a wide area; That 1501b of explosives did the trick in a moment. England's biggest conservatory is ho more. .;