The Great Flood of Boston Molasses of 1919 killed 21 people after the explosion of a 2 million gallon tank

On January 15, 1919, at approximately 12:30 pm, Boston Police Constable Frank McManus was responding to Headquarters while he heard a loud noise of scratching and scratching. Stopping to discover the source, he suddenly felt shocked.

McManus managed to tell the dispatcher: "Send all available vehicles and rescue personnel immediately – a wave of molasses goes down Commercial Street," the newspaper reported. Stephen Puleo, historian and author of "Dark Tide: The Great Flood of Boston Molasses of 1919".

The wave reached 2.3 million gallons, moving at a speed of 35 miles at the time, 25 feet tall and 160 feet wide at its beginning, rushing through North End, a densely populated and densely populated city.

A massive steel tank containing molasses, from a height of 50 feet, was broken. People in his path were immediately swallowed, drowned, and asphyxiated by the viscous substance.

Puleo told NBC News that the tide of molasses had ripped the Engine 31 Firehouse barracks out of its foundation, almost driving the building into Boston Harbor. railcars and houses flooded. At sunset, 21 people were dead, 150 wounded, and the North End appeared to have been bombed.

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Sharp decided to examine the science behind the flood, with a team of scientists at Harvard. "I discovered that the initial wave could have moved at this speed," she said.

Sharp said that the flood could be broken down into two stages, the first titled "The Tsunami".

"Molasses is one and a half times heavier than water. It's very dense, "said Sharp. The tank, if stacked with molasses, stored a large amount of potential energy. When the tank burst, all that potential energy became kinetic energy. "The fact that molasses is extremely viscous does not matter for the first 60 to 90 seconds. Inertia is so much more powerful than forces that can be displaced by viscosity. "

When the tank broke and the molasses exploded, there was no way to overtake it. "When the initial wave arrived, everything was sprayed," Sharp said. People's bones were broken, their bodies thrown on buildings and train cars. Many survivors had broken backs and fractured skulls.

During the second phase of the flood, "the inertia expires when the molasses spreads, it is at this point that the viscosity begins to make its way" Sharp said, referring to the resistance of a liquid to the flow. Molasses has flooded the streets, it has slowed down but has become thicker and stickier, and it is still difficult to escape. People were trapped, witnesses said that they were trying to breathe by staying stuck, sighing life and at the same time, avoiding too much breathing.

"When the temperature dropped, the molasses became increasingly difficult to move, which is a problem when you try to move rubble," said Sharp.

The problems faced by rescuers were also problematic. get people out of molasses. Firefighters had to put ladders on them to avoid falling into sticky bins that were once streets.

Purity Distilling Co., an American subsidiary of the Industrial Alcohol Group (USIA), built the tank in 1915 to meet the growing demand for military weapons. The tank stocked molasses from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the West Indies, which was then sent to a distillery in the east of Cambridge and processed into industrial alcohol. In the United States, England, and France, companies bought the alcohol they desperately needed to make dynamite, smokeless powder, and other explosives used in the First World War.

Puleo explains in his book that the project was launched from the outset. He told NBC News that the project director, Arthur Jell, treasurer of USIA, had "no technical experience, no experience in architecture, no experience in engineering".

From the beginning, Jell ignored the security measures. Instead of filling the entire tank with water once it finished, it only took six inches of water. "The tank begins to sink the first day," said Puleo.

Ronald Mayville, senior director of the Simpson Gumpertz & Heger engineering company in Massachusetts, studied molasses flooding in his spare time. Mayville analyzed the flood with today's technical tools and suspected the tank was designed for water rather than molasses. "The stress in the tank is directly related to the fluid on the inside," he said. "It should have been very simple." Building the tank, Mayville explained, is "a relatively simple calculation that most engineers could achieve that day."

Even though workers alerted USIA of leaks, the company remained unperturbed. The profits of the war flowed as regularly as molasses flowed from the reservoir. In 1918, in order to protect the leaks and avoid costly solutions, Jell even had the brown steel tank painted to hide the molasses that flowed.

Puleo said that seven days before the flood, a day with a low of 2 degrees Fahrenheit, a new cargo dumped more than 500,000 liters of molasses into a poorly constructed tank.

Mixed hot in the tank, the hot molasses of the vessel triggered a fermentation process producing gas. People said they heard the tank complain and moan. A week later, the almost full tank weighing 26 million pounds and the gas inside putting extra pressure on the steel walls, it broke up.

THE HERITAGE OF FLOODS

Although the flood has long been forgotten in popular memory, its legacy remains. Puleo told NBC News that "the tank did not even need a license because it was considered a receptacle and not a building," adding, "Every construction standard we take for granted today stems from flood of molasses. "

In his book, Puleo writes," Shortly after the flood, the Boston Buildings Department began to require that all calculations of engineers and architects be archived with their plans. and that stamped drawings be signed ". country.

Sharp has a more abstract point of view. She hopes the flood taught "people to respect the destructive power of things that we usually consider harmless".

The USIA has not rebuilt the tank, and new war technologies have rendered obsolete the massive distillation of molasses intended for industrial alcohol. Much of the flooded area of ​​molasses is now in Langone Park, where a small plaque hangs to commemorate the tragedy.