Tomorrow is the 90th Anniversary of the Boston Molasses Disaster

[Dennis Donovan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Molasses_Disaster



The Boston Molasses Disaster, also known as the Great Molasses Flood and the Great Boston Molasses Tragedy, occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts in the United States. A large molasses tank burst and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and residents claim that on hot summer days the area still smells of molasses.

The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company facility on January 15, 1919, an unusually warm day. At the time, molasses was the standard sweetener in the United States. Molasses can also be fermented to produce rum and ethyl alcohol, the active ingredient in other alcoholic beverages and a key component in the manufacturing of munitions at the time. The stored molasses was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant situated between Willow Street and what is now named Evereteze Way in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Near Keany Square, at 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter and containing as much as 2,300,000 US gal (8,700,000 L) collapsed. Witnesses stated that as it collapsed there was a loud rumbling sound like a machine gun as the rivets shot out of the tank, and that the ground shook as if a train were passing by.

The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 to 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 km/h) and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft² (200 kPa). The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and lift a train off the tracks. Nearby, buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet. As described by author Stephen Puleo,

Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage. Here and there struggled a form — whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings — men and women — suffered likewise.

The Boston Globe reported that people "were picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet." Others had debris hurled at them from the rush of sweet-smelling air. A truck was picked up and hurled into Boston Harbor. Approximately 150 were injured; 21 people and several horses were killed — some were crushed and drowned by the molasses. The wounded included people, horses, and dogs; coughing fits became one of the most common ailments after the initial blast.

Anthony di Stasio, walking homeward with his sisters from the Michelangelo School, was picked up by the wave and carried, tumbling on its crest, almost as though he were surfing. Then he grounded and the molasses rolled him like a pebble as the wave diminished. He heard his mother call his name and couldn't answer, his throat was so clogged with the smothering goo. He passed out, then opened his eyes to find three of his sisters staring at him.

[Canuckistanian]

1. Sweet Jesus

You wouldn't think that molasses could move that fast.

[ddeclue]

2. Whatever happened to "slow as molasses"?

Was the molasses heated or something to lower its viscosity?

:hide:

[sabbat hunter]

5. The real saying was

as slow as molasses in winter. When molasses is very cold it is very thick and slow.

[hvn_nbr_2]

10. I've always heard "slow as molasses in January"

but either way, it would seem to apply here. I guess 2.3 million gallons pushing from behind will make even molasses get moving.

[NashVegas]

17. "In January," No Less

[aquart]

4. Yah. Sounds more like LaBrea.

Gonna have much more respect for sticky goo after this.

[murielm99]

3. I remember finding a children's book about this incident.

My kids were fascinated by the story. It was a good way to get them interested in something historic.

That does not lessen the tragedy for those who died.

[Warpy]

6. I could smell it in the North End on hot, foggy days

in the late 60s but not after that. At that time, I'd never heard of the disaster, I just knew there was an undertone of molasses whenever I took a walk by the harbor.

The stories are worth looking up. Because people had to commute to and from work, they managed to spread it all over the city via the trolleys and subways. Everything was sticky and nasty for months afterward.

[Rhiannon12866]

7. Yikes! K&R!

So how did they ever come up with the phrase "Slow as molasses in January?!" :shrug::scared:

[Dennis Donovan]

15. I dunno...

...but what a mess it must've been.

[Aristus]

16. Every report I've ever read on the topic has said that it was an unseasonably warm day.

One of the many factors causing the failure of the holding tank may have been that it was overloaded, and that the molasses expanded due to the warm temperature of the day, causing the poorly designed and maintained tank to rupture.

[eppur_se_muova]

8. Dark Tide : the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 (03 Edition)

http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=65-0807050210-2

[blaze]

9. As though he were surfing?

Not to make light of the tragedy... but this line really jumped out at me.

"Anthony di Stasio, walking homeward with his sisters from the Michelangelo School, was picked up by the wave and carried, tumbling on its crest, almost as though he were surfing..."

I guess I thought surfing was a "modern day" invention.

[SoCalNative]

11. Surfing

The history of surfing is shrouded in the mists of time, as the origins of surfing are unknown. The art of surfing was first observed by Europeans in 1767, by the crewmembers of the Dolphin at Tahiti, however surfing was a central part of ancient Polynesian culture and predates European contact.

When the missionaries from Scotland and Germany arrived in 1821, they forbade or discouraged many Polynesian traditions and cultural practices, including, on Hawaii, leisure sports such as surfing and holua sledding. By the 20th century, surfing, along with other traditional practices, had all but disappeared. Only a small number of Hawaiians continued to practice the sport and the art of crafting boards.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_surfing

[blaze]

18. Thanks!

I just now saw your response! :)

[whistler162]

12. A folk group has a song with reference to the incident...

Schooner Fare in the album We The People.

http://music.aol.com/song/molasses/457709

http://www.schoonerfare.com/schoonerfare/8885.html

"MOLASSES
Words and Music by Tom Rowe

African Man cuts the sugar cane,
Oh Molasses
He works in the sun, he works in the rain.
Oh molasses rhum
Then he loads it up on a wooden ship,
Sends it off on a northern trip.
Oh molasses, oh molasses rhum.

Oh molasses, Ole New England tea.
You killed my Grampa, killed my Pa.
And you sure as hell are a killin' me.
Oh molasses, oh molasses rhum.

When they fought the war for the Colonies;
They fought it over New England tea.
Old King George put a tax on it,
The Colonies nearly took a fit.

In the time of the nineteen-seventeen war;
Molasses sitting on the Boston shore.
When they pumped it in it was twelve degrees,
A long cold night in a Boston freeze.

In the morning it was forty-two
Molasses vat split clean in two.
Two million gallons covered the bay
Twenty-six people drowned in the flood that day.

Grampa, he died cuttin' cane.
Pa went down in the great brown rain.
But I won't go in a pool of blood,
I won't drown in a blackstrap flood;
But still I'll go down to molasses, Oh molasses rhum."

[busybl]

13. oh man, that was so horrible

read a book about it last year. That and the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire. terrible.

[deaniac21]

14. Molasses sucks.