Early steamboat boiler explosions (Ohio River)

The first federal research contract (1836, Franklin Institute) — origin of materials engineering science. Used to establish the deep-historical lineage of pressure vessel safety regulation.

To give you an example, the very first research contract ever given by the federal government was given around 1836 to the Franklin Institute, to figure out why the cast-iron boilers in the river boats on the Ohio River were blowing up and killing people. We hadn't gone past the Mississippi in 1836 — we were still on this side of the Mississippi. No one understood why. We didn't have fracture mechanics, we didn't know about toughness, we barely knew about strength of materials in 1836.