He passed out, then opened his eyes to find three of his four sisters staring at him. In 1919, a viscous 40-foot wave slammed into the city’s North End, killing 21 people. He heard his mother call his name and couldn't answer, his throat was so clogged with the smothering goo. Then he grounded and the molasses rolled him like a pebble as the wave diminished. A 1983 article for Smithsonian Magazine describes the events:Īnthony di Stasio, walking homeward with his sisters from the Michelangelo School, was picked up by the wave and carried, tumbling on its crest, almost as though he were surfing. On top of the people who were killed or injured, dogs and horses also got caught in the melee. Of the 21 people who perished in the incident, many of them drowned in the sticky wave. The smell of brown sugar filled the air as bystanders found themselves stuck in the viscous flood. A truck was thrown into Boston Harbor, windows were smashed out, and the surrounding blocks were turned to rubble. They had willfully failed to carry out their civic obligation of keeping the city’s residents safe.According to the Boston Globe, people who were closest to the explosion were picked up by the wave just like they would be in the ocean and pushed away like so much debris. The tragedy led to new safety regulations. The US Industrial Alcohol was found guilty of causing $100 million worth of damages to the city of Boston (in today’s money). A river of hot, sugary molasses flooded part of a Boston neighborhood 100 years ago, killing 21 people and injuring dozens. Ogden stressed, “‘The general impression of the erection and maintenance of the tank is that of an urgent job … I believe and find that the high primary stresses, the low factor of safety, and the secondary stresses, in combination, were responsible for the failure of the tank.” Who Was To Blame?Ī verdict on who was responsible took three years, finally arriving in 1923 after the city’s longest court case. Children from the area were known to come by and fill their cups with the sweet molasses that oozed from the tank’s leaks.īoston appointed attorney Hugh W. History Disaster How the Great Molasses Flood of 1919 Made the World a Little Bit Safer A molasses tank collapsed and caused widespread damage in Boston's North End in January 1919. The staff at the fuel station were apparently aware of these warning flags. Mayville’s investigation revealed that, in additional to the other problems, the tank’s rivets were defective. So, when the tank was overfilled, early cracks occurred around these rivet holes. Ronald Mayville, a structural engineer with the Massachusetts consulting company Simpson, Gumpertz & Heger, launched a further investigation in 2004. Unfortunately, this was not the case on January 15th. Molasses is 1.5 times denser than water, but the force of gravity acting on the liquid resulted in it picking up speed frighteningly quickly. If one thinks of the speed at which molasses moves when poured from a bottle, one thinks of a sticky, slow-moving liquid. Some residents became engulfed in rubble and imprisoned by molasses, putting their lives in jeopardy. The viscous molasses entirely flooded the surrounding area, which was mostly made up of Irish and Italian immigrant households. The tank, which was near the harbor (a prime position for delivery and collection) was itself obliterated in seconds under the thundering pressure of the escaping liquid. Allison describes the Molasses Flood of 1919, which killed 21 people and destroyed part of the North End.This course explores the history of Boston fro. A 2 million gallon (7.6 million liter) molasses tank ruptured on January 15th, 1919, spilling its contents all over Commercial Street in Boston’s North End. The Great Molasses Disaster, often known as “The Big Day,” was one of the strangest calamities to ever strike Boston, but sadly also one of the most devastating. What would you do if a tsunami of sticky molasses swept through your house, destroying everything in its path? What happens when a breakdown in ethics collides with a desire to make money quickly? When the molasses disaster struck Boston in 1919, residents witnessed it first-hand.
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