Boston Molasses Disaster

Boston Molasses Disaster

Aftermath of the disaster; photo by Globe Newspaper Co. (Boston Public Library)
Date January 15, 1919
Location Boston, Massachusetts
Coordinates 42°22′06.6″N 71°03′21.0″W / 42.368500°N 71.055833°WCoordinates: 42°22′06.6″N 71°03′21.0″W / 42.368500°N 71.055833°W
Cause Cylinder stress failure
Casualties
21 dead
150 injured

The Boston Molasses Disaster, also known as the Great Molasses Flood and the Great Boston Molasses Flood, occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. A large molasses storage tank burst, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event has entered local folklore, and for decades afterward residents claimed that on hot summer days the area still smelled of molasses.[1]

Flood

Coverage from The Boston Post

The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company facility on January 15, 1919. The temperature had risen above 40 °F (4.4 °C), climbing rapidly from the frigid temperatures of the preceding days.[2]:91, 95

Molasses can be fermented to produce rum and ethanol, the active ingredient in other alcoholic beverages and a key component in the manufacturing of munitions.[2]:11 The stored molasses was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant situated between Willow Street and what is now named Evereteze Way, in Cambridge.

Modern downtown Boston with molasses flood area circled

At about 12:30 in the afternoon near Keany Square,[3] at 529 Commercial Street, a molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter, and containing as much as 2,300,000 US gal (8,700 m3), collapsed. Witnesses reported, variously, that as it collapsed, they felt the ground shake and heard a roar, a long rumble similar to the passing of an elevated train, a tremendous crashing, a deep growling, or a thunderclap-like bang! and, as the rivets shot out of the tank, a machine-gun-like rat-tat-tat sound.[2]:92–95

The collapse unleashed a wave of molasses 25 feet (7.6 m) high at its peak,[4] moving at 35 miles per hour (56 km/h).[1] The molasses wave was of sufficient force to damage the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and tip a railroad car momentarily off the tracks. Author Stephen Puleo describes how nearby buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet (60 to 90 cm). Puleo quotes a Boston Post report:

Molasses, waist deep, covered the street and swirled and bubbled about the wreckage ... Here and there struggled a form—whether it was animal or human being was impossible to tell. Only an upheaval, a thrashing about in the sticky mass, showed where any life was ... Horses died like so many flies on sticky fly-paper. The more they struggled, the deeper in the mess they were ensnared. Human beings—men and women—suffered likewise.[2]:98
Damage to the Boston Elevated Railway due to the flood

The Boston Globe reported that people "were picked up by a rush of air and hurled many feet." Others had debris hurled at them from the rush of sweet-smelling air. A truck was picked up and hurled into Boston Harbor. Approximately 150 were injured; 21 people and several horses were killed—some were crushed and drowned by the molasses. The wounded included people, horses, and dogs; coughing fits became one of the most common ailments after the initial blast. In a 1983 article for Smithsonian, Edwards Park wrote of one child's experience:

... Anthony 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. Then he grounded and the molasses rolled him like a pebble as the wave diminished. He heard his mother call his name and couldn't answer, his throat was so clogged with the smothering goo. He passed out, then opened his eyes to find three of his four sisters staring at him.[1]

Aftermath

Detail of molasses flood area. 1. Purity Distilling molasses tank 2. Firehouse 31 (heavy damage) 3. Paving department and police station 4. Purity offices (flattened) 5. Copps Hill Terrace 6. Boston Gas Light building (damaged) 7. Purity warehouse (mostly intact) 8. Residential area (site of flattened Clougherty house)

First to the scene were 116 cadets under the direction of Lieutenant Commander H. J. Copeland from USS Nantucket, a training ship of the Massachusetts Nautical School (which is now the Massachusetts Maritime Academy), that was docked nearby at the playground pier.[3] They ran several blocks toward the accident. They worked to keep the curious from getting in the way of the rescuers while others entered into the knee-deep sticky mess to pull out the survivors. Soon the Boston Police, Red Cross, Army and other Navy personnel arrived. Some nurses from the Red Cross dove into the molasses, while others tended to the injured, keeping them warm and keeping the exhausted workers fed. Many of these people worked through the night. The injured were so numerous that doctors and surgeons set up a makeshift hospital in a nearby building. Rescuers found it difficult to make their way through the syrup to help the victims. It took four days before they stopped searching for victims; many of the dead were so glazed over in molasses, they were hard to recognize.[1]

Local residents brought a class-action lawsuit, one of the first held in Massachusetts, against the United States Industrial Alcohol Company (USIA), which had bought Purity Distilling in 1917. In spite of the company's attempts to claim that the tank had been blown up by anarchists[2]:165 (because some of the alcohol produced was to be used in making munitions), a court-appointed auditor found USIA responsible after three years of hearings. United States Industrial Alcohol Company ultimately paid out $600,000 in out-of-court settlements (at least $10.7 million in 2012 dollars).[5] Survivors of the fatal victims reportedly received approximately $7,000 per victim (approximately $125,000 in 2012 dollars).[1]

Cleanup

Cleanup crews used salt water from a fireboat to wash the molasses away, and used sand to try to absorb it.[6] The harbor was brown with molasses until summer.

The cleanup in the immediate area took "weeks",[7] with more than 300 people contributing to the effort.[2]:132–134, 139 The cleanup in the rest of Greater Boston and its suburbs would take an indefinably longer time. Rescue workers, cleanup crews and sight-seers had tracked molasses through the streets and spread it to subway platforms, the seats inside trains and streetcars, to pay telephone handsets, into homes[2]:139[1] and countless other places. "Everything a Bostonian touched was sticky."[1]

Fatalities

NameAgeOccupation
Patrick Breen44Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
William Brogan61Teamster
Bridget Clougherty65Homemaker
Stephen Clougherty34Unemployed
John Callahan43Paver (North End Paving Yard)
Maria Di Stasio10Child
William Duffy58Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
Peter Francis64Blacksmith (North End Paving Yard)
Flaminio Gallerani37Driver
Pasquale Iantosca10Child
James H. KenneallyUnknownLaborer (North End Paving Yard)
Eric Laird17Teamster
George Layhe38Firefighter (Engine 31)
James Lennon64Teamster/Motorman
Ralph Martin21Driver
James McMullen46Foreman, Bay State Express
Cesar Nicolo32Expressman
Thomas Noonan43Longshoreman
Peter Shaughnessy18Teamster
John M. Seiberlich69Blacksmith (North End Paving Yard)
Michael Sinnott76Messenger

Sources:[2]:239[3]

Causes

Several factors that occurred on that day and the previous days might have contributed to the disaster. The tank was constructed poorly and tested insufficiently. Due to fermentation occurring within the tank, carbon dioxide production might have raised the internal pressure. The rise in local temperatures that occurred over the previous day also would have assisted in building this pressure. Records show that the air temperature rose from 2 to 41 °F (−17 to 5.0 °C) over that period. The failure occurred from a manhole cover near the base of the tank, and it is possible that a fatigue crack there grew to the point of criticality. The hoop stress is greatest near the base of a filled cylindrical tank.

The tank had been filled to capacity only eight times since it was built a few years previously, putting the walls under an intermittent, cyclical load. Several authors say that the Purity Distilling Company was (or may have been) trying to outrace Prohibition in the United States;[8][9][10] the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States was ratified the next day (January 16, 1919), and would take effect one year later.[11]

An inquiry after the disaster revealed that Arthur Jell, who oversaw the construction, neglected basic safety tests, such as filling the tank with water to check for leaks. When filled with molasses, the tank leaked so badly that it was painted brown to hide the leaks. Local residents collected leaked molasses for their homes.[5]

An investigation first published in 2014, applying modern engineering analysis, found that the steel was not only half as thick as it should have been for a tank of its size, even with the lax standards of the day, but it also lacked manganese, and was made more brittle as a result.[12]

The area today

Molasses Flood Historical Marker

United States Industrial Alcohol did not rebuild the tank. The property formerly occupied by the molasses tank and the North End Paving Company became a yard for the Boston Elevated Railway (predecessor to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority). It currently is the site of a city-owned recreational complex, officially named Langone Park, featuring a Little League Baseball field, a playground, and bocce courts.[13] Immediately to the east is the larger Puopolo Park, with additional recreational facilities.[14]

A small plaque at the entrance to Puopolo Park, placed by the Bostonian Society, commemorates the disaster.[15] The plaque, titled "Boston Molasses Flood", reads:

On January 15, 1919, a molasses tank at 529 Commercial Street exploded under pressure, killing 21 people. A 40-foot wave of molasses buckled the elevated railroad tracks, crushed buildings and inundated the neighborhood. Structural defects in the tank combined with unseasonably warm temperatures contributed to the disaster.

One of the DUKW amphibious tourist vehicles operated by Boston Duck Tours, appropriately painted dark brown, has been named Molly Molasses in remembrance of the event, per the firm's practice of naming their DUKWs after famous Boston locations, events and other bits of local culture.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Park, Edwards (November 1983). "Without Warning, Molasses in January Surged Over Boston". Smithsonian 14 (8): 213–230. Retrieved 2013-03-24. Reprinted at Eric Postpischil's Domain, "Eric Postpischil's Molasses Disaster Pages, Smithsonian Article", June 14, 2009.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Puleo, Stephen (2004). Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919. Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-5021-0.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "12 Killed When Tank of Molasses Explodes" (PDF). The New York Times (January 16, 1919). January 15, 1919. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2008-05-30.
  4. ↑ Jabr, Ferris (July 17, 2013). "The Science of the Great Molasses Flood". Scientific American. Retrieved 2013-10-16.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Adams, Cecil (December 31, 2004). "Was Boston once literally flooded with molasses?". The Straight Dope. The Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2006-12-16.
  6. ↑ "The Great Boston Molasses Disaster of 1919". The Hour. United Press International. January 17, 1979.
  7. ↑ Mason, John (January 1965). "The Molasses Disaster of January 15, 1919". Yankee. Reprinted at Eric Postpischil's Domain, "Eric Postpischil's Molasses Disaster Pages, Yankee Magazine Article", June 14, 2009. Retrieved 2014-06-08.
  8. ↑ Puleo, Stephen (2010). Dark Tide: The Great Molasses Flood of 1919. Beacon Press. p. 79. Any disruption at the tank could prove disastrous to his plan to outrun Prohibition by producing alcohol as rapidly as possible at the East Cambridge distillery.
  9. ↑ Stanley, Robert (1989). "Footnote to History". Yankee 53: 101. In January of 1919 Purity Distilling Company of Boston, maker of high-grade rum, was working three shifts a day in a vain attempt to outrun national Prohibition.
  10. ↑ Silverman, Steve (2001). Einstein's Refrigerator: And Other Stories from the Flip Side of History. Andrews McMeel. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-7407-1419-1. First, it was believed that the tank was overfilled because of the impending threat of Prohibition.
  11. ↑ Streissguth, Thomas (2009). The Roaring Twenties. Infobase. p. 13. ISBN 978-1-4381-0887-2.
  12. ↑ Schworm, Peter (January 15, 2015). "Nearly a century later, new insight into cause of Great Molasses Flood of 1919". Boston Globe. Retrieved 2015-01-16.
  13. ↑ Harris, Patricia; Lyon, David (2004). Boston: a Guide to Unique Places. The Globe Pequot Press. pp. 63–64. ISBN 0-7627-3011-0.
  14. ↑ "Places to go: Downtown/North End". The Boston Harbor Association. Retrieved 2013-09-05.
  15. ↑ Ocker, J.W. (2010). The New England Grimpendium. Woodstock, VT: The Countryman Press. p. 97. ISBN 978-0-88150-919-9.
  16. ↑ "Ducks and ConDucktors". Boston Duck Tours. Retrieved 2013-09-05.

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