The few workers in the building’s cellar had no chance as the liquid poured down and overwhelmed them. Researchers say they have figured out a piece of the puzzle of why a 2.3 million-gallon spill of molasses from a storage tank in Boston was so deadly, killing 21 people and destroying buildings. An eight-foot-high wave of molasses swept away the freight cars and caved in the building’s doors and windows. Twenty-one people died from the molasses flood, and 150 were injured either from being swept up in the flood or buried in the debris of collapsing structures. It was an event in which 2.3 million gallons of molasses flooded the streets of the North End of Boston. The molasses poured outward through the streets, causing a wall of molasses up to 15 to 30 feet high and moving at a speed of 35 miles an hour. On January 15, 1919, a steel tank holding molasses ruptured sending a 2.3 million gallon, 26 million pound wave of the dark, sticky syrup surging through the. Photo courtesy of the Boston Public Library. a 2.3 million gallon wave of molasses destroyed everything in its path. What was the Great Molasses Flood Well, it’s just what it sounds like. Census Bureau History: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. That year, the city experienced the Great Molasses Flood. Suddenly, the bolts holding the bottom of the tank exploded, shooting out like bullets, and the hot molasses rushed out. Don’t believe us Just ask anyone who lived in the Boston area in 1919. The weirder and more notable aspects of the disaster, via Dark Tide author Stephen Puleo. Next to the workers was a 58-foot-high tank filled with 2.5 million gallons of crude molasses. Anarchists, Horses, Heroes: 12 Things You Didn’t Know about the Great Boston Molasses Flood. Stephen Puleo will discuss his book, Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, at the Boston Public Library in Copley Square at 6 p.m. It was close to lunch time on January 15 and Boston was experiencing some unseasonably warm weather as workers were loading freight-train cars within the large building. The day before is known in Boston for the Great Molasses Flood, a strikingly absurd, destructive, and fatal event. Though the disaster was blamed at first on Italian anarchists, it was in fact the tank company’s fault. More than two million gallons of thick liquid poured out like a tsunami wave. 1919, a giant tank of molasses burst open in Boston’s North End. The United States Industrial Alcohol building was located on Commercial Street near North End Park in Boston. The great Boston molasses flood killed 21 people. Why the Great Molasses Flood Was So Deadly. Listen to HISTORY This Week Podcast: The Great Boston Molasses Flood The molasses burst from a huge tank at the United States Industrial Alcohol Company building in the heart of the city. Travel with TV director/producer and former history teacher Harry Thomason as he tells you intriguing, frightening, and interesting stories of U.S.Fiery hot molasses floods the streets of Boston on January 15, 1919, killing 21 people and injuring scores of others. The residential neighborhood has been renovated since, and we didn't notice any residual stickiness. The Molasses Flood took months to clean up, and the smell lingered for decades. The small green sign is set low into a stone wall, unnoticed unless you're looking for it near the Bocce ball court along Commercial Street. While we can't complain too much - at least someone installed a sign at the site - it doesn't exactly conjure the moment, January 15, 1919, molasses bearing down on you. We had high expectations when visiting the Molasses Flood Monument. After we dock our zeppelin we'll do a little more research.). Do we even eat molasses any more? If the Hindenburg explosion doomed the zeppelin as a ubiquitous mode of travel, this goopy mess probably soured the public's romance with molasses (it's still an ingredient in rum and, oh yeah, Boston - baked beans, and maybe more.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |