Description

Hand-built instrument with electronic components attached to a peace of plywood. The electronic components are attached to a power cord, and a numerical counter. This device was used to measure the swaying of the John Hancock building in high winds.

Visitors to Boston in 1973 would have seen the gleaming structure of the 62-story John Hancock building dotted with plywood. High winds were causing its 500-pound windows to fall out. Frank Durgin, associate director of the Wright Brothers Wind Tunnel, was charged with determining the source of the problem. Using scale models of the building, along with instruments that measured sway, Durgin and his team tried to find the source of the problem. Though they did not determine why the windows were falling, the group raised other questions about the building’s structural integrity, prompting another expensive retrofit.