He continued, "A second later, it seemed, there was a crash. And it was sweeping rapidly down upon the office, gaining momentum every second." "Instead was a mighty wall of some kind - a giant wave of molasses. "Where the tank stood there was no tank," Kingsley recalled. When it didn't stop, however, he looked out of his window. Kingsley who worked in an office near the tank said he heard a rumble that he thought was the elevated train. Those who witnessed the disaster firsthand spoke of the power of the giant wave of molasses that descended on Boston's North End.Īccording to, the Globe reported that a man named B.E. The Great Boston Molasses Flood And Its Sticky Aftermath On that fateful January day, one of the cracks gave way - and the entire tank ripped itself apart. Library of Congress Rescuers and curious bystanders flock to the scene of the disaster. As the internal pressure grew, it pushed the already fragile tank past its breaking point. A few warm winter days (by Boston standards, anyway) sped up fermentation and boosted the amount of carbon dioxide in the tank. In fact, Purity Distilling counted on this happening because they sold off that ethanol, which was an essential component in munitions manufacturing and in high demand during World War I.īut more so than that ethanol, it was carbon dioxide, another fermentation byproduct, that played a pivotal role in the Boston molasses disaster, along with unseasonable weather. This became dangerous when combined with molasses' natural propensity to ferment and produce ethanol. Shoddy construction, lax safety testing, and years of repeated over-filling left the tank weakened. In reality, a few different factors contributed to the initial blast behind the Boston molasses disaster. Of course, that did nothing to fix the root of the problem. Purity Distilling reportedly painted the tank dark red to disguise the leaks in response to residents' concerns. Every time it was filled, it groaned and shuddered." Soon, however, it was revealed that residents had been reporting leaks in the tank since its construction.Īs Stephen Puleo, the author of a book about the incident called Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, told The Boston Globe, "It was leaking from day one. The owners of Purity Distilling, the United States Industrial Alcohol Company (USIA), initially claimed that anarchists had blown up the molasses tank in protest. The Shocking Cause Of The Boston Molasses FloodĪfter the wave of molasses subsided and rescue efforts were underway, officials began trying to determine what had caused the disaster. After the wave subsided, scores of people lay entombed beneath a substance thousands of times more viscous than water.įirst responders to the scene had to wade through feet of molasses to search for survivors - and pull 21 dead bodies from the mess. To make matters worse, the molasses thickened once exposed to the winter air. Those who found themselves in the flood’s path were carried away, crushed, or drowned. The molasses swept away vehicles and horse-drawn carriages, and it even moved with enough force to warp the girders of the Atlantic Avenue Elevated train tracks. It flattened offices and homes, and it lifted a firehouse off of its foundation. The resulting wave spread out across a two-block radius. As many as 2.3 million gallons of the sticky liquid spilled out in a matter of seconds. 15, 1919, a Purity Distilling Company molasses storage tank exploded in the city’s North End. Molasses can move pretty fast - a fact Boston residents learned the hard way nearly a century ago in what was one of the strangest disasters in American history. On January 15, 1919, a poorly-constructed tank burst open and sent a 25-foot-high wave of molasses through Boston's North End, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others.Įver heard the saying “slower than molasses”? Turns out it’s not true.
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