The Whistle

For the next four or five (or six or seven) years, you will regulate your life to the twice-hourly call of the Whistle, a steam
whistle which sounds five minutes before every hour from 6:55 a.m. to 5:55 p.m., and also on the half-hour on Tuesdays and
Thursdays. It also blows after a home game football victory. No, we don't know why Tuesday and Thursday are special.

The whistle has been stolen numerous times:

• The first whistle-napping occured around 1902 or 1903 when two rival campus factions literally battled to determine
  which group would steal the whistle. After a stern warning from Dr. John Saylor Coon, the whistle was anonymously
  returned the next day.
• A subsequent whistle-napping took place in the fall of 1905 when four students took the whistle and, fearful of
  punishment, kept it hidden until 1949.
• The whistle was stolen again and presented to Dean George C. Griffin upon his retirement in 1964.
  In 1969, outgoing Institute President Harrison presented Student Government President Carey Brown with the whistle,
  which had dissappeared in March.

In the fall of 1981, the whistle was held for ransom. Some Institute personnel housed near the whistle had complained so
much about its disruptive blasts that the whistle stopped blowing. The student body, outraged at the loss of the reliable timekeeper and the resulting confused schedules, kidnapped the whistle in protest and promised to return it only if it could continue in its traditional capacity.

Long negotiations and compromises resulted in the whistle's return to duty with the duration of its sound reduced from ten
seconds to five seconds. Although the method was unorthodox, the students of Georgia Tech successfully preserved the
tradition of the whistle.

More recently, the whistle was stolen for President Clough's inauguration in 1995.

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