The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR. In 1829, hundreds of spinners and weavers had gathered at the Norfolk Arms Hotel when the floor collapsed under them . In the tumble, the crowd fell two stories, all the way into the cellar. Thirty people died. After the incident, a jury convened for an inquest. They assessed the value of splintered timbers that had been the floor: 5 shillings, to be divided amongst the family of the victims. A pretty paltry sum, even by the standards of the day—but that was the nature of the law. The jury was working from a legal concept that was over eight centuries old: the deodand , an obscure survival of medieval law.…