In 1904, more than 1,500 Baltimore buildings were destroyed in a fire that burned for 30 hours. Fire companies from as far away as New York came to help, but many of them were useless because their hose couplings did not fit the Baltimore hydrants, and differed from each other's. It was just one of many events that made clear the need for codes and standards.

ASME turned its attention to standards in the early 1880s. In 1883, it formed a committee on standards and gauges, and in 1884 the organization published its first uniform test code on boiler tests. Soon after, the organization decided that pipes and pipe threads should also be standardized.

It was not until 1915, however, that ASME first published its Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code, which was written to address the problem of exploding boilers. This code has become law in all 50 U.S. states, in all provinces of Canada and is accepted for use in more than 100 other countries throughout the world. Since its development, boiler disasters have been reduced to almost zero.

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