Exploding Steamboats, Senate Debates, and Technical Reports

By 1838, over two thousand Americans had been killed and many hundreds injured by exploding steam engines on steamboats. After calls for a solution in two State of the Union addresses, a Senate Select Committee met to consider an investigative report from the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, the first federally funded investigation into a technical.

R. John Brockman

CHAPTER 1. Steamboat Politics and Steamboat Society New York Harbor, May 15, 1824, 7:00 PM Four Days Later-Washington City, May 19, 1824 CHAPTER 2. Steamboat Technology High-Pressure Steam Engines and Hulls that Ride On the Water What Could Go Wrong with the Boiler Technology Problems Operating a Problem-Prone Technology February 24, 1830, Memphis Tennessee, Early Morning Washington City, May 4, 1830-Two and a Half Months Later CHAPTER 3. Steamboats, The Presidency, and Public Opinion Red River, May 19, 1833, Early on a Spring Sunday Morning December 3, 1833-President Jackson's State of the Union Message to Congress But What About the Public Pressure for Steamboat Safety? The Franklin Institute Reports-A Reasoned Technical Response to Catastrophe Traditional Technical Writing of the Era-Communications Received by the Committee of the Franklin Institute on the Explosion of Steam Boilers (1832) Report of the Committee of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, on the Explosions of Steam-Boilers, Part I, Containing the First Report of Experiments Made by the Committee for the Treasury Department of the U. States (1836) General Report on the Explosions of Steam-Boilers by a Committee of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts (1837) Report of the Committee of the Franklin Institute of the State of Pennsylvania for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, on the Explosions of Steam-Boilers Made at the Request of the Treasury Department of the United States, Part II, Containing the Report of the Sub-Committee to Whom Was Referred the Examination of the Strength of Materials Employed in the Construction of Steam Boilers (1837) Contemporaneous Reactions to the Institute Reports in the Scientific Community: Hales's Open Letter to Grundy, Locke's Cincinnati Report, and Steam Textbooks by Renwick and Ward Contemporaneous Reactions to Institute's Reports by Those Most Directly Involved: Steamboat Inspectors, Engineers, and Firemen The Gold Dust Fire Chapter 37. The End of the "Gold Dust" Chapter 20. A Catastrophe CHAPTER 4. Steamboat Politics and Rhetoric May 11, 1837, Thirty Miles South of Natchez A Brief Coincidence of Political Interests The Select Committee The Initial Proposed Bill in December 1837 The Bill Reported Out of Committee CHAPTER 5. The Law Didn't Work GLOSSARY APPENDIX 1. Comparing the Four Legislative Attempts INDEX