Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919. Boston Firsts: 40 Feats of Innovation and Invention that Happened First in Boston and Helped Make America Great. “Solving a Mystery Behind the Deadly Tsunami of Molasses,” The New York Times. “ The Great Boston Molasses Tank Failure of 1919,” Civil + Structural Engineer Media, September 1, 2014. ”The Sticky Science Behind the Deadly Boston Molasses Disaster,” Smithsonian Magazine. The catastrophic event led to reforms in building standards in Boston and beyond. In 1925, in the biggest law suit in Massachusetts history, the court ruled unequivocally in favor of the victims. From the outset, people had reported excessive leakage from the seams, so much so that children routinely filled buckets with molasses at the tank’s base. Then they filled it multiple times with 2.3 million gallons of molasses weighing 26 million pounds. The owners used only six inches of water to test its strength. The tank had been built quickly with virtually no oversight. Dozens more suffered debilitating physical and emotional injuries. Twenty-one people perished-some immediately, others after lingering in pain for several days. Others, like 10-year-old Pasquale, were crushed by debris swept up by the molasses, or died in buildings that collapsed. A 30-foot wave of fast-moving, thick molasses suffocated many in the vicinity. One of the most usual – and tragic – chapters in the city’s long history – endured by the residents and workers in the North End, 96 years ago this week.In late 1915, a five-story, steel tank to store molasses was built here at the edge of a densely-populated neighborhood. The Globe also notes that the molasses and its tank.
Almost all of that is a direct result of the Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919." Death and devastation in wake of North End disaster, reads one of the sub-headlines for the Globe. First in Boston, and then across the country. Goes a long way toward changing building and construction standards. "It is one of the first decisions against a large U.S. In a landmark decision, the judge found for the 114 plaintiffs– and ordered the company that owned the tank to make amends. One of the first class action suits of its kind, the case stretched on for three years. The molasses flood spawns a huge civil lawsuit afterwards. The cleanup took months- and millions of gallons of saltwater to cut the molasses and wash it into the harbor, which was stained brown for weeks on end. Some 150 more were injured everything from crushed pelvises to broken backs. Sailors and firefighter scrambled furiously to clear debris and find victims in the coagulating gunk.Īll told, 21 people were killed - including two 10-year children.
At around 1pm on 15 January 1919, a 50ft-tall steel holding tank on Commercial Street in Boston’s North End ruptured, sending 2.3m gallons of molasses pouring into the neighborhood. Study reveals why so many met a sticky end in Bostons Great Molasses Flood. The whole event lasted just 15 to 20 minutes, and left the neighborhood in chaotic shambles. The Boston Evening Transcript later described it as a deep rumble. "Firefighters needed to lay ladders across the molasses and crawl out to pull victims out." Just obliterated a blacksmith shop, a carpentry shop, knocked the firehouse on Boston Harbor off it’s foundation, trapped firefighters underneath, takes out the main tressel of the Boston passenger rail line that ran from South Station to North Station," said Puleo. "It killed horses, it killed people, it killed domestic animals. "Send all available rescue personnel immediately, there’s a wave of Molasses coming down Commercial Street."Ī 25-foot high tidal wave of brown, viscous molasses speeding through the North End at 35 miles per hour, consuming and destroying everything in it’s path. 15, 1919, an enormous molasses storage tank burst in Boston’s North End, and a 25-foot-high molasses flood surged through the streets at 35 miles per hour. Officer Frank McManus’s call to police headquarters moments later said it all. Just after noon, on January 15, 1919, the tank – filled to capacity - collapsed.
But the havoc it wreaked was unimaginable. "Every time it was filled it buckled, it groaned." A metal tank broke, and the 2.3 million gallons of molasses in it poured out onto Commercial Street. The Great Molasses Flood or Boston Molasses Disaster happened in Boston, Massachusetts on January 15, 1919. "From the very first day the tank leaked," Puleo said. The North End after the wave of molasses. The steel wasn’t thick enough, and the tank was never properly tested. So, the tank was rushed to completion in 1915 and corners were cut. High explosives, TNT, nitroglycerin, for the war effort," said Puleo. "That industrial alcohol was further processed and used in the production of munitions.
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