City - Boston Ma - The Great Molasses Flood 1919 Postcard

Colorized photo from 1919, Jan 15th Original Title: Boston molasses explosion Location: 529 Commercial Street in North Boston This was a very strange tragedy, on Jan 15th 1919, a very large tank of molasses exploded. It flooded the town. Owned by the The Purity Distilling Co, the tank measured 50ft tall by 90ft in diameter, it held over 2 million gallons of molasses. The tank was constructed on a very tight budget, and was oversaw by a person that didn't know how to read a blueprint. Three years prior to the event, the tank leaked all the time, residents would collect it and use it themselves. To alleviate the problem, the company painted the tank brown. When they added more, people would hear the tank groan. Then one fateful day, they added more molasses to the tank (this tank stored it for reuse in weapons, food and alcohol). The mixture in the tank was cold, and the new mixture they added was warm (so it can be pumped in). This was believed to started a fermentation process that then destroyed the tank. They think carbon dioxide built up and the tank popped. It was described as machine gun fire, the rivets popped out and fired out in all directions, and the bottom blew off, the sides took out some of the El train's supports and knocked a train off its tracks on the other side. It took a moment for the pressure to build before the top popped off, with such force, it actually launched a few hundred feet in the air. A huge wave of molasses poured out, measuring any where between 8-15ft tall, by 160ft wide, it traveled at 35mph! And it flattened EVERYTHING in its path. Destroying a fire house across the street, flooding basements, knocking over buildings. People tried to rescue others by jumping in and swimming in it, but its like tar, and you can't swim in it. A training navy was in the area and they were on the scene first. As they rescued people, they described them as if they were soaking in oil, and all orifices were filled with molasses. They had to clear that before resuscitating them. As if that wasn't bad enough, school let out just a while before, and many children died. One boy was swept off his feet and nearly drown. They found him with molasses down his throat, when it drained, he took a big breath of air, only to find out his sister died in it. In all 21 people died, 150 were injured, a lot of horses and other animals died as well. In today's costs, it was over a $100 million in damages. There were long court cases, many people sued them. And new rules were written because of it, now an engineer has to approve of the design, it was because of this incident. Their findings were, that the metal was too thin. It took them 87,000 hours to clean the mess up. Pumping it out of basements, and washing it away with salt water, because fresh wasn't working. People would come by to look or help, and ended up tracking it throughout the entire city. They said that everything in Boston, was sticky. It was on everything, everywhere, on trolley seats, and door handles. Any place people walked and touched, it spread out. The entire city smelled like it for very long time, it took about 6 months for it to leave the harbor. To this day, people in that area, could swear they can smell molasses, if its warm enough.