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"History shows that, with time, a given community of engineers and scientists has generally proven able to explain the technical particulars of a structural collapse. Yet, the demands placed in an investigation have as much, or more, to do with defining the dominant investigator and quickly addressing the fears and anger of the press, government, and an outraged public than they do with discovering the defiinintive technical truths of a catastrophic event."

"Steam power...utterly transformed American economic and social life in the 19th century. With this promising technology, though, arrived a whole series of risks, catastrophic boiler explosions being the most dramatic, and the deadliest."