Talk:Boston Molasses Disaster

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Good article Boston Molasses Disaster was one of the good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
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[edit] The Smell

The smell people often claim is the residual molasses smell is really a tar smell. I don't have any references for this, but I live in Boston and know a good deal about the local history, and am also familiar with the nauseating tar smell you can detect in the area of the flood. 75.69.110.227 22:39, 7 July 2007 (UTC)

The event happened almost 90 years ago, so it's unlikely the smell is from the flood. It is more likely from some other nearby source.Kevin Rutherford (talk) 02:35, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Issues with the metric numbers=

Something must be wrong with the metric numbers for the size of the tank. The article says 27 meters in diameter, and 15 meters tall. 27*Pi*15 = 1272 cubic meters = 1.272 million liters. Not 8.7 million liters. Unless this article is suggesting that the molasses was compressed by a factor of 8, which sounds impossible. Akeshet 05:40, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

The volume of a cylinder is determined by the formula V = r2πh. Thus the maximum capacity of the tank was 13.5×13.5×п×15 ≈ 9 million liters, slightly more than the 8.7 million liters shown in the article. --Allen3 talk 12:57, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Ooops, what the hell was I thinking. Akeshet 02:23, 16 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nutrition

ps: molasses has health quality iron and minerals for the human body to digest.

What is the point of including that in this article? Why not just link to the molasses article and put the nutritional information there? in fact, I'll do just that. - ElusiveByte 23:46, Sep 21, 2003 (UTC)

Bah, I just read the nutritional information of molasses and it says it contains 0% dietary iron. The only mineral of note was calcium at 5% of the recommended daily value per 1 tbsp serving. So I simply deleted this incorrect information rather than moving it - ElusiveByte 23:57, Sep 21, 2003 (UTC)

Depends on the molasses. I have some "unsulphured" molasses that claims to have lots of iron and calcium. Tastes kind of like blood, so I believe the iron content. It might also be that the iron is poorly absorbed, like with iron in spinach. --24.16.148.75 22:26, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

You've got to be kidding. Is this article fictional? :D (I assume it's not fiction, but still...) - Gilgamesh 02:49, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Prohibition

I just thought I'd note that I added the timing of the 18th amendment ratification as just sort of an interesting coincidence. It actually went into effect a year after that, and accounts suggesting that the distilling company was "trying to get in one last batch" are more fancy than fact. In reality, the company continued in business right through Prohibition up to the present day. The Cambridge/Boston facilities were closed some time after this incident, but the company continued to produce alcohol through that period (and they still do).

[edit] Elevated tracks

That was a portion of the Atlantic Avenue Elevated line that ran between North (Union) and South Station until 1938, torn down in 1942. Some accounts suggest that this line was used for transporting molasses, but it was for passenger traffic. A second set of rails for the Union Freight Railroad ran beneath the El, and that is what carried goods from the waterfront. --iMb~Mw 03:13, 13 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Popular culture

There is a Ducktales episode called Raiders of the Lost Harp - No. 45, I remeber there is a tank of fluid bubblegum spilling the harbor - quite similar to the Boston molasses disaster. --Abdull 13:57, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Map

The overview map showing the area of the disaster is anachronistic--it shows the Sumner (1934) and Callahan (1961) tunnels and the Central Artery (1956). That doesn't make it useless, but the Artery construction in particular changed the North End a lot. I'll change the caption to make this a bit more clear. --Jnik 18:17, 22 March 2006 (UTC)

That seems like a good solution. I used a recent map to make it easier for curioius readers to find the spot, should they choose to check it out for themselves. --iMb~Meow 08:15, 18 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Bubbling Up From the Streets to This Day?

I'd be great if someone could maybe make a note about the scientific feasibilty of this statement. Tomb Ride My Talk 20:10, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

I pointed out the obvious reasons why there won't be anything left. I stopped short of calling it flatly untrue, because there are people who insist that they can still smell it :) --iMb~Meow 08:07, 18 May 2006 (UTC)
* I am going to remove the "obvious reason", I will also cite at least two article that indicate that the area positively has a molasses smell in the summer. Your reasoning sounds logical but that does not take into account the fact the people’s basements were filled with the goo, On houses that where not destroyed you could see the high ‘molasses’ point which would mean that wooden timbers, brick walls and field stone foundations were permeated. As a local Bostonian I can also attest to the smell which can almost be nauseating at times. Maybe it is just the molasses covered ghosts but it is there. Markco1 01:58, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Number fixes explained

The article used to describe the tank as 50 ft tall and 240 ft around. After a change made today, it read 50 ft tall and 90 ft around. I changed it to 50 ft tall and 90 ft in diameter, which is supported by other sources.

The content number was clearly bogus. Calculate a volume with any of the numbers above (pick any shape) and you will see what I mean: there's no way 2.5 million gallons fit into such a tank. Therefore, I changed that number from 2.5 to 2.3 (source as above). Rl 19:34, 2 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] NYT Article

Does it make sense to use a reprint from the New York Times when the Boston Globe's coverage should be considered definitive? (The Boston Public Library's microfiche room staff can tell you which issue to pull because every 5th grader in town ends up writing a paper on this.... I did.) Alexr wiki 03:52, 22 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Delisted GA

This article did not go through the current GA nomination process. Looking at the article as is, it fails on criteria 2b of the GA quality standards. Although references are provided, the citation of sources is essential for verifiability. Most Good Articles use inline citations. I would recommend that this be fixed, to reexamine the article against the GA quality standards, and to submit the article through the nomination process. --RelHistBuff 13:01, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

  • Under the banner of Project Boston I am currently working to clean up citations and add a few more. I will also add some more intersting information about the force of the disaster and the aftermath of the incident. Markco1 02:03, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Good article nomination failed

This article is close to GA quality, but requires some copyediting and cleanup. The following issues should be addressed and the article resubmitted for consideration:

1. The style of writing in the article is inconsistent. For example, numbers are alternately spelled out or written in arabic numerals (such as 18th Amendment vs. Eighteenth Amendment). Furthermore, some of the measurements in the article are linked while others aren't, dates are written differently, abbreviations changed, etc. Some members of a series are linked, while others not.

2. Two quotations appear without introduction or qualification and are quite difficult to separate from the text of the actual article. These need qualification and should adhere to the Manual of Style.

3. Copyediting needs to be done for spelling errors, unclosed parentheses, and minor grammatical errors.

4. Statements like "bomb throwing anti-war anarchists" might violate NPOV standards.

5. The references should be cited appropriately. For example, if you go to the website of the first reference, at the bottom of the page (as in the website the link goes to) it demonstrates exactly how the page should be cited. This should be observed. The second reference should be cited appropriately as well, rather than just naming the source. The appropriate style for reference citation should be observed for all the references given.

This article is quite interesting, and with a little polish, will easily pass when resubmitted. Cheers! Chuchunezumi 16:28, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Man-decade?

That's a strange way to put it. All people want to know is, how long did it take? How many people worked on the cleanup? Man-decade is something an engineer would use to cost out a job. An encyclopedia reader wants to know who, what, when, where and why. MarkinBoston 01:00, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] External Link added

I am 19 years old and blind. I am interested in adding relevent items to wiki that help the blind "visualize" and grasp the subjects at hand. I love the tradition of oral storytelling. I have added a link to a radio story by The American Storyteller. This audio story is about the The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919.--Trgwilson (talk) 22:39, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Alias names to the incident.

The Massachusetts Molasses Massacre. The Great SLOW Flood. The Great Sugar Slaughter. The River Of Death. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 63.88.67.230 (talk) 00:28, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

Absent evidence to the contrary, I think we can safely assume these are personally contrived original research, an attempt at humor. Hertz1888 (talk) 01:52, 26 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Truth about Layhe

The following section was removed as unsourced and contradicted by NYTimes article:

The wave of molasses was so powerful that it destroyed the first floor of the fire department (station 31) causing the upper floors to collapse upon the first, trapping George Layhe in an 18" crawlspace. Layhe managed to keep his head above the molasses for three days to keep breathing, but on the fourth day could no longer keep his strength and drowned in the molasses.

However, the Boston Globe states on January 16, 1919 on page 7:

"ENGINERR'S BODY IN ENGINE HOUSE RUINS George Layhe Crushed by Piano and Wreckage Firemen Show Heroism in Saving Trapped Comrades" and "Heroic work was done by members of the Boston Fire Department yesterday afternoon. every minute at the risk of their lives, when they chopped and dug in the deblis of Engine 31 quarters in an effort to take out alive comrades who..."

So it seems the truth is somewhere in between, but I can't read the whole article. Can someone with access dig this up to get to the bottom of this? Thanks. WilliamKF (talk) 20:19, 2 June 2008 (UTC)

  • While I do not have access to the Boston Globe article, the following items are from Puloe's book (Puleo, Stephen(2004). “Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919”, Boston:Beacon Press, ISBN 0-8070-5021-0):
    Pg. 107
    "Then he realized that Layhe was pinned under the pool table, desperately trying to keep his head out of the molasses, which had to be rising faster and higher away form the opening in the wall."
    Pg. 119
    "Late afternoon January darkness enshrouded the waterfront when they finally pulled firefighter George Layhe's lifeless body out from under the firehouse around 5 P.M."
    Pg. 120
    "They had found the thirty-seven-year-old fire department marine engineer wedged under the pool table and the piano, his legs crushed by the timbers."
Based upon Puloe, it appears Layhe was pinned by a piano and pool table and lasted for several hours instead of days. --Allen3 talk 21:56, 2 June 2008 (UTC)