The silence atop Mount Oread at 20 minutes past the hour today may be signalling the end of an era.

Since the 1940s, a bronze steam whistle — originally a fixture on a German freighter — has sounded starting times for classes from its perch atop Kansas University’s Power Plant.

But on Wednesday, the blast of 300-degree steam that sounds the whistle cracked it, firing it airborne. It flew about 25 feet before landing on the Power Plant’s roof.

“We were lucky it fell where it did,” said Doug Riat, director of Facilities Operations.

Though no one was injured in the incident, the whistle was declared dead by KU officials. And because of the cost and difficulty of finding a replacement, the days of the whistle may be over.

Riat said the expansion and contraction caused by the steam had caused smaller cracks in the whistle over the years. He said recent cold weather probably was not the cause of the latest trouble.

“We’ve done a lot of welds on it over the years,” Riat said. “It was just a matter of time.”

According to “Historic Mount Oread,” a book by Sandra Wiechert, the Power Plant has had a steam whistle since 1912. Riat said the most recent whistle had been in place since the early 1940s.

He said it was uncertain whether KU would replace the landmark. A new one would cost at least $2,000, and it’s difficult to find companies that make such fixtures, he said.

“It’s not a stock item sitting on the shelf someplace,” he said.

If KU does replace the whistle, the new one would probably be made of cast iron and steel instead of bronze.

“We think that would probably hold up a little bit better,” he said.

Physical Plant Supervisor Bob Sieber, Eudora, looks over what's left of the steam whistle that sounded starting times for Kansas University classes for about 60 years. The blast of 300-degree steam that sounds the whistle cracked it Wednesday and fired it about 25 feet in the air.