“BOSTON (AP) — Slow as molasses? This treacle didn’t trickle. It was a sticky, deadly tsunami that flattened an entire Boston neighborhood within seconds.

On Tuesday, the city marks the 100th anniversary of its most peculiar disaster — the Great Molasses Flood.

It struck without warning at midday on Jan. 15, 1919, when a giant storage tank containing more than 2.3 million gallons (8.7 million liters) of molasses suddenly ruptured, sending a giant wave of goop crashing through the cobblestone streets of the bustling North End.

The initial wave rose at least 25 feet high (7.6 meters high) — nearly as tall as an NFL goalpost — and it obliterated everything in its path, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others. Rivets popped like machine-gun fire. Elevated railway tracks buckled. Warehouses and firehouses were pushed around like game pieces on a Monopoly board. Tenements were reduced to kindling…”

https://apnews.com/6ce137c09b374a38b4c3a57189859fe2

Then came the ants.......

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:
Then came the ants.......

That is a visual I could have done without this early.

This was on an episode of Drunk History.

Suffocating to death in a wave of that goo must have been a horrible way to die.

There's a really good book on the subject called "Dark Tide"./

I wasn’t familiar with this but am very familiar with oil & gas storage tanks design and maintenance. I would be interested in reading a more technical failure analysis of the tank.

It's been a while since I read the book, but they do go into the tank issue very heavily. As I recall it was a fifty foot tank. Apparently they didn't calculate the loads correctly. There were many indicators of issues that the company ignored. They even painted the tank brown to hide the constant leaks.

I guess I can’t use the saying “Slower then Molasses in January”any more...traveling at 35 MPH is not slow!

One of my very close friends who eventually published a number of books on Boston started with this event as his first book. The book is called Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 as mentioned above.
If this event is one you want to know the details that's the book.

Back in the day, my father's father's father marked their hardships by comparison to disasters. Boston's molasses tank rupture. The Chester PA Fireworks Factory Explosion, Feb 1882. Various fires. Oral history used to be everyday conversation.

Who are today's historians. Does everyone assume we'll always be able to 'look it up on the web"?

Speaking of historians: I just read Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson. The Galveston hurricane. While 2/3rds of the book got skimmed, the actual hurricane hit was remarkably described.

What a sticky situation...

I vaguely remember this incident being used in a chemistry text or physics text as an example of P,V,T-pressure, volume, temperature.

A most unexpected and unfortunate way to die.

For years afterward dentists were treating folks with sore gum.

Pay the man or else he’ll be here all night folks ...

Heard of this a long time ago. Word was that part of the town smelled like molasses for years. The stuff had soaked into the structures, cobbled streets, everywhere.

Men seeking ladies showed up for months looking for mo’ lasses.

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
It's been a while since I read the book, but they do go into the tank issue very heavily. As I recall it was a fifty foot tank. Apparently they didn't calculate the loads correctly. There were many indicators of issues that the company ignored. They even painted the tank brown to hide the constant leaks.

It seems to come down to poor construction. The tank was built in a hurry. The steel used was to brittle and too thin. The person overseeing the construction couldn’t even read a blueprint. Testing the tank, by filling it with water wasn’t done. The tank leaked from the start. So much that people regularly collected molasses from the leaks and the tank was painted brown to hide the leaks.
The tank had been topped off with molasses delivered from the far South. That plus fermentation, increased the viscosity. Hence the speed.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/u...er-2-million-n958326
http://mentalfloss.com/article...-molasses-flood-1919

What I want to know is why they had the need for that much molasses? That stuff is horrid! (Except in mom's molasses cookies...dang those were good.)

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
What I want to know is why they had the need for that much molasses? That stuff is horrid! (Except in mom's molasses cookies...dang those were good.)

The article explains it, it was used for making industrial alcohol and other products.