Petroleum and Public Safety

Petroleum and Public Safety
Author: James B. McSwain
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2018-07-06
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0807169145

Throughout the twentieth century, cities such as Houston, Galveston, New Orleans, and Mobile grappled with the safety hazards created by oil and gas industries as well as the role municipal governments should play in protecting the public from these threats. James B. McSwain’s Petroleum and Public Safety reveals how officials in these cities created standards based on technical, scientific, and engineering knowledge to devise politically workable ordinances related to the storage and handling of fuel. Each of the cities studied in this volume struggled through protracted debates regarding the regulation of crude petroleum and fuel oil, sparked by the famous Spindletop strike of 1901 and the regional oil boom in the decades that followed. Municipal governments sought to ensure the safety of their citizens while still reaping lucrative economic benefits from local petroleum industry activities. Drawing on historical antecedents such as fire-protection engineering, the cities of the Gulf South came to adopt voluntary, consensual fire codes issued by insurance associations and standards organizations such as the National Board of Fire Underwriters, the National Fire Protection Association, and the Southern Standard Building Code Conference. The culmination of such efforts was the creation of the International Fire Code, an overarching fire-protection guide that is widely used in the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central America. In devising ordinances, Gulf South officials pursued the politics of risk management, as they hammered out strategies to eliminate or mitigate the dangers associated with petroleum industries and to reduce the possible consequences of catastrophic oil explosions and fires. Using an array of original sources, including newspapers, municipal records, fire-insurance documents, and risk-management literature, McSwain demonstrates that Gulf South cities played a vital role in twentieth-century modernization.

Arthur H. Vinal / Edmund March Wheelwright and the Chestnut Hill Pumping Station

Arthur H. Vinal / Edmund March Wheelwright and the Chestnut Hill Pumping Station
Author: Dennis J. De Witt
Publisher: Metropolitan Waterworks Museum
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2016
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1519310234

This book arose from a need to understand one of late nineteenth century Boston’s most prominent buildings, the Chestnut Hill High Service Pumping Station, now the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum. It considers how such a municipally designed, high-style, Richardsonian Romanesque, yet also industrial, building came into existence. Arthur H. Vinal and Edmund March Wheelwright, its two architects working a decade apart, in 1884-88 and 1898-99 respectively, left a seamlessly unified building. They were never partners nor colleagues. But almost sequentially, in 1884-88 and 1891-95 respectively, each was given charge of the same large municipal architectural office. Each also began his professional career, again almost in sequence, with same important firm, Peabody & Sterns, after which each left Boston for a few years before returning. Wheelwright and Vinal came from different backgrounds and arguably had differing sensibilities. Vinal’s generally preferred style as City Architect was Richardsonian Romanesque — a mode Wheelwright never employed, except when extending Vinal’s Chestnut Hill Pumping Station. Remarkably, the written record suggests these two architects had no other connections, despite having both practiced, throughout their careers, in the guild-like world of Boston’s late-nineteenth to early-twentieth century architectural profession. They only had in common the Chestnut Hill High Service Pumping Station and the distinction of having been, for approximately four highly productive years each, Boston’s City Architect. There has been no previous study of either architect’s work. In Vinal’s case, except for his time as City Architect, his career and life left a scant written record. Almost none of his work was published. It is primarily known to us through municipal records, advertisements for constructor bids, and occasional references in newspaper articles. Other than his term as City Architect, which produced the major portion of the Chestnut Hill Pumping Station and a remarkable number of municipal buildings in a short time, his career was little different from those of many other successful, now largely forgotten, architects who contributed to the fabric of an expanding metropolitan Boston during its so called Golden Age from the Civil War through the First World War. Most of what he produced was conservative, well constructed row housing plus some multi-story buildings containing the then still novel “French flats.” In contrast, Wheelwright’s work was published. He was active and well respected at the highest levels of the profession, locally and nationally. Far more is known of his life and practice. Even in the relatively conservative milieu of metropolitan Boston, his work could not generally be called dramatic, although there were exceptions. Rather than simply representing an aesthetic exercise, his architecture was also informed by his predisposition to political and social reform. Perhaps as a result, while not unknown, he has not received the attention he deserves. The present study for the most part tells its stories visually. It is heavily illustrated. In addition to Vinal and Wheelwright, a third actor is touched upon, that is the City Architect’s Office, with its patronage and professional practice, and its evolution over the two decades — having been initially created as a good government reform in 1874 and finally abolished with, Wheelwright's support, for similar reasons in 1895. Without it, neither architect could have designed and built the prodigious number of buildings credited to them during their tenures. Lastly, this volume includes an attempt to produce catalogs raisonné of Vinal’s and Wheelwright’s known bodies of work — which, in each case, research for this study has significantly expanded.

Report

Report
Author: State Library of Massachusetts
Publisher:
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1909
Genre: Libraries
ISBN: