10/31/2023 0 Comments Great molasses flood in boston![]() The flood was devastating for the harbor community. While over 150 people were injured, 21 unfortunately lost their lives, along with countless cats, dogs, and horses. And due to its thick and sticky nature, it buried and drowned many people and animals nearby. And as it spread, it created a two-to-three-foot-thick layer across much of the downtown harbor area. When it spilled out, it quickly cooled and thickened. The liquid in the tank was warmer than the outside air. It was effectively a tsunami approximately 30 feet tall rushing down Boston’s Commercial Street at 35 miles per hour. Of course, the explosion of the tank meant that molasses would flow. The vacuum effect created by the explosion dragged a truck across the street and pulled a train car right off the tracks. The force of the explosion was strong enough to collapse some buildings and knock others off their foundations. As the tank exploded, metal rivets holding it together were torn apart and flew through the air like shrapnel. The tank, the largest of all molasses tanks in Boston, held 2.3 million gallons of fermenting, sticky, and stinky molasses. On January 15, 1919, a warmer-than-usual day, the full tank exploded. The Great Molasses Flood Collapsed tank remnants, via History When the company was made aware of the leaking tank, its solution was to paint it brown to disguise the leaks. This led to the poor structure of the tank and the subsequent leakage. This unequipped contractor lacked technical training and safety expertise and was said to be unable to read blueprints. The company that owned Purity Distilling, US Industrial Alcohol, had been in a rush to build it and had employed a contractor who was not an expert in engineering but rather an expert in finance. It leaked from the beginning, and local children often brought their pails to the tank and collected the leaking molasses. Residents living in and around the port would often comment on how the tank groaned and shuddered each time it was filled. It was put up hastily and was not inspected prior to use as it should have been. (Albeit the same type of brittle steel used on the Titanic just seven years prior.) The thickness of the steel did not hold up to the heavy, sticky substance, and it was never structurally sound. The 50-foot-tall tank was made from state-of-the-art steel from the period. In 1915, The Purity Distilling Company had a large tank built. The rum was then shipped to Africa and traded for enslaved people, who were, in turn, transported back to the Caribbean Islands to work the plantations and maintain the sugar cane crops.Ī Troublesome Tank Elevated platform collapse, via City of Boston/ Plantation owners in Jamaica and Barbados would process their sugar cane, then transport the molasses to Boston, where the distillers would make rum. The “triangular” trade was an economic boon for multiple geographic locations. In World War I, it had even been used used to make ammunition. In fact, it’s a key ingredient for ginger snaps, gingerbread, Boston brown bread, and Boston baked beans. Molasses, the residue left when sugar cane is boiled to extract sugar, is used for many purposes, such as making rum, producing cattle feed, and cooking. With Prohibition close to becoming law in the US and the want for alcohol high, Boston became a major player in the triangular trade and was the storage center for most of the molasses traded. At the time, it was one of the busiest ports in the US since all the shipping that left this Boston harbor was headed for the East Coast or Europe. In the early 1900s, the main commercial port in Boston, Massachusetts was located at the City’s north end, at Copp’s Hill. A Sticky Situation The ruins of tanks containing 2.5 million gallons of molasses lie in a heap after an eruption that hurled trucks against buildings and crumpled houses in the North End of Boston on Jan.
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