The Study

One hundred forty-six workers died in the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. The owners were acquitted. Ada finds the trial exhibits disallowed by the judge — physical evidence that factory exit doors were locked not by oversight but by documented company policy. The disallowed exhibits included a time-motion efficiency study commissioned two months before the fire identifying the locked-door policy as a productivity mechanism. The study's author was present at trial and not called. Ada finds his grandson, who has the study.