I believe the term came about in the early days of steam power when designers had a habit of “overcompensating” because boilers had a history of catastrophic an

I believe the term came about in the early days of steam power when designers had a habit of “overcompensating” because boilers had a history of catastrophic and deadly failures. This lead to excessive and unnecessary overbuilding of the boiler walls which ironically made it MORE dangerous when it exploded.