This is a story that, as far as I know, has never appeared in print before. It’s not exactly hot news—the incident happened in 1970—but it exemplifies Henry Petroski’s dictum that engineers often learn more from failure than success.

One of the big tourist attractions of Texas during the 1960s was Aquarena Springs, an early water park at the headwaters of the San Marcos River in San Marcos, Texas, where I now live. The park boasted what it called the world’s only submarine theater, a steel-and-glass box with rows of seating inside that you entered via a stairway in the rear. Once the audience was seated, the entire system was lowered on cables, and you watched the level of the crystal-clear spring water slowly rise along the glass picture windows. When the window was pretty much entirely underwater, the show began.

 …