The Explosion of Government Regulation

A little history of the beginning of the regulatory state (h/t Ritholtz):

On April 25, 1838, the Moselle shot upstream from the Cincinnati wharf to pick up two families of German immigrants. While the new passengers ambled aboard the craft, the engineer kept the steam pressure high so that the boat could dart away from the shore with great speed. This was a common, but dangerous, practice: When the engineer engaged the paddlewheels, a sudden influx of steam pushed against the boiler walls and could be so intense that if it exploited a crack, weak spot or seam in the boiler wall, the boiler could detonate.
The Moselle’s paddlewheels turned twice before an explosion shredded the boat. All four boilers burst simultaneously in a deafening roar that one witness thought sounded like a “mine of gunpowder.” Chunks of flesh, splintered wood and twisted metal shot into the air, then splashed into the river. One of the boilers instantly decapitated the engineer while the explosion’s force threw the captain against the prow of another steamer, his body a bloody pulp that slid into the water.
The macabre scene almost defied description. One man had a huge splinter shoved through his head, from ear to ear. Another flew 100 yards in the air and crashed into the roof of a house. When one of the immigrants tried to remove his clothes, he peeled the skin off his body. At least 80 people perished that day and an additional 35 went missing, probably blown to bits.
Although exceptionally gruesome, the Moselle’s demise was hardly the only such tragedy. From 1816 to 1848, a total of 1,433 people died in steamboat accidents along the western rivers, then defined as any waterway in the Mississippi Valley....But after the Moselle and other notable explosions, Congress felt compelled to act.
The result was the 1838 Steamboat Act, the first federal regulation of a private industry. Under the new law, all steamboats had to be licensed and agree to regular inspections of their hulls, boilers and machinery. When boats were stopped, engineers had to open the safety valve and keep the steam pressure low. Tiller ropes were replaced with chains or rods. Captains and crew could be fined or imprisoned for disobeying the law while owners could be sued for negligence.
Other legislation went even further. Most notable was the creation of the Steamboat Inspection Service, the first federal regulatory agency. It granted and revoked boat licenses; required that all boilers be checked regularly; and licensed pilots and engineers. When combined with industry self- correction, such as the “doctor” (a small pump that brought water into boilers when the paddlewheels weren’t turning), nighttime running lights, life preservers and fire hoses, steamboat travel became reasonably safe by the mid-1850s.
The explosion of the Moselle and other steamboats forced Americans to consider the degree to which unregulated private industry could endanger lives and property.

That is a little history I wasn't familiar with.  The whole story is interesting.