Boston molasses flood modern12/3/2023 Indeed, the Boston Globe described people being “picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet”, while Smithsonian magazine wrote that some people were caught in the wave of molasses itself and “carried, tumbling on its crest, almost as though surfing.” The machine-gun like sound that witnesses reported hearing were actually the rivets popping loose, while the roar of the molasses escaping confinement and rushing down the streets warned others of impending danger, albeit not quickly enough for most to take cover. Whatever the causes, on January 15, 1919, conditions were just right for the massive tank to rupture in an explosion. However, after three years of hearings, the company was ultimately found liable in the disaster, and paid out around $628,000 in damages and class action lawsuits, which would adjust to more than nine million in today’s dollars. The Purity Distilling Company, meanwhile, claimed that the tank had been blown up by anarchists who opposed the use of the molasses in producing munitions. While we may think of molasses primarily as a food product, in 1919 it was used for a number of different things, including the production of ethanol, which was a common ingredient in both alcoholic beverages and munitions. But to understand a little more about it, we first have to look at the nature and uses of molasses. So, what caused this peculiar disaster? There have been numerous theories advanced over the years, and we’ll probably never know for certain. Related: NASA, the "Challenger" Disaster, and How One Phone Call Could Have Saved the Crew Dogs, cats, and horses weren't spared either, though no official count exists of their fatalities. In all, approximately 150 people were injured in the course of the event, and 21 people were killed. Human beings – men and women – suffered likewise.” While the weather that day was warm for January, around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, it was still cold for molasses, and the syrupy substance quickly began to congeal, making rescue efforts even more difficult. “The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. “Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper,” the Boston Post reported. This made it almost impossible for anything caught in the path of the molasses to struggle through it. “Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was.”įor those who have never had any experience with molasses themselves, the sugary substance is sticky and syrupy and thick, fully 40% more dense than water. “Here and there struggled a form – whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell,” the report continued. Besides the usual perils that accompany any flood, living things had to contend with an additional danger. Damaging as the unlikely flood was to property, however, its devastation to life was even more significant.Ī contemporary report from the Boston Post sets the scene: “Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage,” it shared. The molasses swept through the streets with enough force to tip a streetcar from its tracks and even sweep buildings off their foundations. Within minutes, the region was engulfed in a massive wave of molasses, reaching 25 feet in height at its peak and moving at 35 miles per hour. Odd as those noises were, however, they were nothing compared to what was coming. Related: 11 Riveting Books About Natural Disasters That Will Engross Readers This was accompanied by sounds that were described as deep growling, a thunder-like bang, and something like a machine gun being fired. At around 12:30 in the afternoon, witnesses around Keany Square described feeling the ground shake, as if an elevated train were passing nearby. History is filled with unusual -and unlikely -disasters, but perhaps none has ever been as strange as the one which struck Boston’s North End neighborhood on an unseasonably warm January day in 1919.
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