Twisted Rails, Sunken Ships The Rhetoric of Nineteenth Century Steamboat and Railroad Accident Investigation Reports, 1833-1879

Contemporary disaster investigation reports into the Shuttle, Three Mile Island, or the World Trade Centre did not happen by chance, but were the result of an evolution of the discourse communities involved with investigating technological accidents. The relationships of private companies, coroners, outside experts, and government investigators all had to be developed and experimented with before a genre of investigation reports could exist. This book is the story of the evolution of these investigation discourse communities in published reports written between 1833 and 1879. Using the reports generated by seven different accidents on railroads and steamboats between 1833 and 1876, it is possible to observe the changes in how these reports interacted and changed over the course of the nineteenth century: The Explosion of the Steamboat New England in the Connecticut River, 1833; The Explosion of the Locomotive Engine Richmond near Reading Pennsylvania, 1844; The Explosion of the Steam Boat Moselle in Cincinatti, 1838; The Camden and Amboy Railroad Collision in Burlington, New Jersey, 1855; The Gasconade Bridge Collapse on the Pacific Railroad in Missouri, 1855; The Eastern Railroad Collision in Revere, Massachusetts, 1871; The Ashtabula Railroad Bridge Collapse in Ohio, 1876

Introduction: The Dance of Nineteenth Century Steamboat and Railroad Accident Investigation Reports Two 1911 ICC ReportsShifts in America Affecting Accident Investigation Reports Three Shifts in the Discourse Community PART ONE: USING SCIENCE AS A CORPORATE DEFENSE Chapter 1: The Collaboration of Science and the Corporations Takes Center Stage While the Coroner's Jury is Befuddled by Complexity The Accident-The Explosion of the Steam Boat New England, October 9, 1883The Coroner's Jury InvestigationThe Company Investigation Report Exonerates Its Actions Using Science Establishing a Scientific Ethos for the Investigation ReportDispositio (Arrangement) as a Means of Persuasion in the Investigation Report"Outside Experts" Give Their Findings . . . But Not Very Persuasively Other "Outside Experts" Offer Their Critical Comments, But Much LaterIn the End Chapter 2: Science for Sale The Accident-Explosion of the Locomotive Engine Richmond near Reading, Penna. on the 2nd of September 1844 The Coroner's Jury Verdict-Act of God or an Act of ManThe Shaky Scientific Ethos of Dionysus Lardner Needing to Present Both Sides when Lardner DeclaimsCommittee on Science and the Arts Report In the End PART TWO: PUBLICITY, POLITICAL PRESSURE, AND EMOTIONAL INVOLVEMENT BY AUTHORS TRANSFORM DISASTER INVESTIGATIONS Chapter 3: Publicity, Politics, and Emotions Enter the Investigation Constellation-The Steamboat Moselle Explosion, Spring 1838 The Steamboat Moselle Explosion on the Cincinnati Waterfront Cincinnati in the 1830s: Frontier Law and OrderPolitical Control of the Investigation Locke's Highly Charged Personal Emotional Involvement in the Investigation How Locke Used Silliman's ReportThe Beginning of a New Approach to Accident Investigation In the End Chapter 4: What Happens When the Scientific Ethos is Missing in Investigation Reports: The Camden and Amboy Railroad Disaster, 29 of August 1855Railroad Dangers The Joint Companies (the Camden and Amboy Railroad and the Delaware and Raritan Canal) and Commodore Robert F. Stockton The Coroner's Jury VerdictThe Joint Companies Try to Exonerate their Actions but Meet with DisdainThe Franklin Institute Scientists Offer a Sermon, Not Science The Stockton-Van Rensselaer Controversy In the End Chapter 5: The Gasconade Bridge Accident, November 2, 1855 A Celebration with Political EffectsRailroad Truss Bridges Unfinished Bridges were Routinely UsedThe Accident The Coroner's InquestThe Press Weighs InThe Company's Report-Does Not Fully Exonerate the Company Henry Kayser-A Critical Scientific Voice of the CompanyJulius Adams's RebuttalIn the End PART THREE: THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD OF DISASTER INVESTIGATION: TRANSFORMATION ENDS AND A CONSTELLATION OF ROLES AND REPORTS BECOMES NORMALThe Role of the Newspapers in the Investigative ProcessInternational Influences in the United States Investigative Process Chapter 6: The Eastern Railroad Accident at Revere, Massachusetts, August 26, 1871 The Accident Instant Analysis, The Railroad Gazette, September 2, 1871 Coroner's Jury Verdict, September 10 Report of the Committee of the Directors, October 20, 1871, and "Justice" in the American Railroad Times, October 21 to December 23The Massachusetts Railroad Commission Report, January 1872 Charles Francis Adams, Jr.'s Account of the Revere Accident, Atlantic Monthly, January 1876In the End Chapter 7: The Ashtabula Railroad Disaster, December 29, 1876- The State and the Professionals Take Over Four Variations on the Tried-and-True Howe Truss Design The Accident The InvestigationsThree Unique InvestigationsIn the End-Move toward Legislative Action Chapter 8: Notes on Railroad Accidents A Railroad Philosopher Contemporary Reviews of Notes on Railroad Accidents Rhetorical Element One: "Thrilling Incidents"Rhetorical Element Two: "Accident Taxonomy" Rhetorical Element Three: "Statistics" Rhetorical Element Four: "Scientific Analysis"The Impact of Notes on Railroad Accidents Glossary Index

John Brockman has been a member of the English Department, Concentration in Business and Technical Writing, University of Delaware, for 20 years.