In 1907, following a growing number of accidents involving explosives, which raised the cost to the railroads of transporting explosives, the Bureau of Explosives was created under the American Railway Association (ARA), predecessor of the Association of American Railroads. With a chemical laboratory and 16 inspectors, the Bureau immediately took the lead in inspecting shipments, encouraging improvements in shipping techniques, and developing rules that formed the basis of all modern regulations of hazardous shipments. Although the Bureau was granted considerable powers by its constitution, which was adopted by the majority of ARA member railroads, it used the approach of encouraging compliance. This was accomplished primarily by informing and educating shippers and railroad personnel on why the rules were necessary for their safety, frequently using in their annual reports numerous examples of accidents where the rules were not followed. Soon the Bureau membership rose and, by 1912, 68 percent of all carrier track was under its guidance. Many shippers became members of the Bureau in order to utilize its expertise in the proper preparation of shipments to withstand the rigors of transportation.

In 1908, Congress granted the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) power to regulate the transportation of explosives. Even though the ARA Bureau of Explosives’ rules extended to more than explosives, the ICC promptly adopted them and left enforcement to the Bureau. As the Bureau refined these rules, the ICC routinely adopted them.  These procedures remained in force until the 1960s, and they sharply reduced accidents despite rapid growth in shipments of hazardous materials.

The Bureau’s pioneering developments also extended beyond the railroads, for the ICC later applied its regulations to highway transportation in the 1930s, and the Coast Guard and Civil Aeronautics Board adapted them for marine and air transport as well.

Beginning in the late 1960s, with the formation of the US Department of Transportation and the transfer to that department the safety regulations of the ICC, the authority granted to the Bureau in the regulations was gradually removed. Today there is little reference to the Bureau of Explosives in the US Department of Transportation’s hazardous materials regulations in 49 CFR; but the Bureau, with its inspector force and publications, remains a major and vital force in the safe transportation of hazardous materials by all modes of transportation.