March Toward Standardization

This is an interesting article:

http://www.asme.org/Communities/History/Resources/Long_Arduous_March_Toward.cfm

Excerpted from the page:

"In 1894, at the Henry Clay Mine in Shamokin, Pennsylvania, 27 boilers exploded simultaneously, leveling the surrounding town and killing thousands of people."

I also found a reference to the Henry Clay Mine Disaster in Pipeline and Pipeline Engineering (ISBN 0824709640) which mentions "1885 - 27 boilers explode and kill hundreds". Unfortunately, I left the book at the office and cannot double check that quote at the moment.

Researching this subject on the web (since the number of deaths sounded a bit suspect), I am unable to find any pages that refer to a disaster of such magnitude.

Does anyone have any further information about this?

Paul Received on Fri Dec 15 20:25:00 2006