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

Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Dance of Nineteenth Century Steamboat and Railroad Accident Investigation Reports Two 1911 ICC Reports Shifts 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, 1883 The Coroner's Jury Investigation The Company Investigation Report Exonerates Its Actions Using Science Establishing a Scientific Ethos for the Investigation Report Dispositio (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 Later In 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 Man The Shaky Scientific Ethos of Dionysus Lardner Needing to Present Both Sides when Lardner Declaims Committee 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 Order Political Control of the Investigation Locke's Highly Charged Personal Emotional Involvement in the Investigation How Locke Used Silliman's Report The 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 1855 Railroad Dangers The Joint Companies (the Camden and Amboy Railroad and the Delaware and Raritan Canal) and Commodore Robert F. Stockton The Coroner's Jury Verdict The Joint Companies Try to Exonerate their Actions but Meet with Disdain The 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 Effects Railroad Truss Bridges Unfinished Bridges were Routinely Used The Accident The Coroner's Inquest The Press Weighs In The Company's Report-Does Not Fully Exonerate the Company Henry Kayser-A Critical Scientific Voice of the Company Julius Adams's Rebuttal In the End PART THREE: THE ANTEBELLUM PERIOD OF DISASTER INVESTIGATION: TRANSFORMATION ENDS AND A CONSTELLATION OF ROLES AND REPORTS BECOMES NORMAL The Role of the Newspapers in the Investigative Process International 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 23 The Massachusetts Railroad Commission Report, January 1872 Charles Francis Adams, Jr.'s Account of the Revere Accident, Atlantic Monthly, January 1876 In 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 Investigations Three Unique Investigations In 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

About the Author :
Professor R. John Brockmann has been a member of the English Department, Concentration in Business and Technical Writing, University of Delaware, for 20 years. He received the Jay R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching technical communication from the Society for Technical Communication in 2003. He was elected a Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication in 1995, and received the "Joseph T. Rigo Award, 1986" from the Association of Computing Machinery, Special Interest Group for Documentation of Computers (ACM SIGDOC), for his "significant contributions to the knowledge and understanding of software technical writing."