Westport Library patrons were startled this afternoon by a loud boom. Almost immediately, a window in the children’s library shattered in place.
No cause has been determined. No bird, rock or other item was seen outside.
An “06880” reader reports: “You could hear the window tinkling as it continued to crack, but not fall.” The area outside was cordoned off by library staff.
Westport firefighters keep an eye on the children’s library 3rd floor window.
My guess: building walls are moving as the structure settles into the landfill it’s build on top of. Glass does not respond well to bending, Remember all the windows popping out of the Hancock Building in Boston?
Heres’s the wiki report on the actual cause of the Hancock building window problem:
An independent laboratory eventually confirmed that the failure of the glass was due to oscillations and repeated thermal stresses caused by the expansion and contraction of the air between the inner and outer glass panels which formed each window; the resilient bonding between the inner glass, reflective material, and outer glass was so stiff that it was transmitting the force to the outer glass (instead of absorbing it), thus causing the glass to fail.
Massholes affectionately renamed it “the plywood palace” during the period when the felled windows were replaced with…plywood.
Another mystery boom? Been heard here and in Norwalk over past several years. Police have no idea of their origin still.
Sonic boom. Military have their own pathways and somebody was “speeding”?
Anybody remember when Hillspoint Elementary was closed when windows began to shatter, 1960sh?
Yes! About 2 weeks after the school opened. Interior windows. All the kids who had left Burr Farms Elementary School for the “new” Hillspoint had to return to Burr Farms. Hillspoint, BTW, is now A Child’s Place and other preschools. Presumably it is much safer now.
Spontaneous, internal stresses of the glass panel caused by differential heating or cooling.
Why don’t we ask our resident “domestic violence advocate” to explain what happened here? S/he seems to be an expert on ALL things.