Boston molasses disaster
Encyclopedia
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. A large molasses
Molasses
Molasses is a viscous by-product of the processing of sugar cane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. The word molasses comes from the Portuguese word melaço, which ultimately comes from mel, the Latin word for "honey". The quality of molasses depends on the maturity of the sugar cane or sugar beet,...
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 residents claim that on hot summer days, the area still smells of molasses.
Disaster
Purity Distilling Company
The Purity Distilling Company was a chemical firm based in Boston and specializing in the production of ethyl alcohol through the distillation process. It was a subsidiary of United States Industrial Alcohol. In 1919, one of its large molasses tanks collapsed, leading to the Boston Molasses Flood....
facility on January 15, 1919, an unusually warm day for January (40˚ F, 4.4˚ C). At the time, molasses was the standard sweetener in the United States. Molasses can also be fermented
Fermentation (food)
Fermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation in simple terms is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol...
to produce rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
and ethyl alcohol
Ethanol
Ethanol, also called ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. It is a psychoactive drug and one of the oldest recreational drugs. Best known as the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, it is also used in thermometers, as a...
, the active ingredient in other alcoholic beverages and a key component in the manufacturing of munitions at the time. The stored molasses was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant situated between Willow Street and what is now named Evereteze Way, in Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
.
Near Keany Square, at 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter and containing as much as 2300000 US gal (8,706.4 m³) collapsed. Witnesses stated that as it collapsed, there was a loud rumbling sound, like a machine gun as the rivet
Rivet
A rivet is a permanent mechanical fastener. Before being installed a rivet consists of a smooth cylindrical shaft with a head on one end. The end opposite the head is called the buck-tail. On installation the rivet is placed in a punched or pre-drilled hole, and the tail is upset, or bucked A rivet...
s shot out of the tank, and that the ground shook as if a train were passing by.
The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 and 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 km/h), and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft² (200 kPa). The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway
Boston Elevated Railway
The Boston Elevated Railway was a precursor first to the Metropolitan Transit Authority in Massachusetts, now the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, operating rapid transit, streetcars and buses in the Boston, Massachusetts area. It was formerly known as the West End Street Railway.The...
's Atlantic Avenue
Atlantic Avenue Elevated
The Atlantic Avenue Elevated was an elevated railway around the east side of downtown Boston, Massachusetts, providing a second route for the Boston Elevated Railway's Main Line around the Washington Street Tunnel...
structure and lift a train
Train
A train is a connected series of vehicles for rail transport that move along a track to transport cargo or passengers from one place to another place. The track usually consists of two rails, but might also be a monorail or maglev guideway.Propulsion for the train is provided by a separate...
off the tracks. Nearby, buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed. Several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 ft (61 to 91.4 cm). As described by author Stephen Puleo:
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.
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
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
Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeast.-History:...
. Approximately 150 were injured; 21 people and several horses were killed — some were crushed and drowned
Drowning
Drowning is death from asphyxia due to suffocation caused by water entering the lungs and preventing the absorption of oxygen leading to cerebral hypoxia....
by the molasses. The wounded included people, horses, and dogs; coughing fits became one of the most common ailments after the initial blast.
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 sisters staring at him.
Aftermath
Massachusetts Maritime Academy
Massachusetts Maritime Academy is a regionally accredited, coeducational, state college offering undergraduate degrees in maritime-related fields, as well as graduate degrees and professional studies. Established in 1891, Mass Maritime is the second oldest state maritime academy in the country...
), that was docked nearby at the playground pier. 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 wounded, keeping them warm as well as 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 dead were so glazed over in molasses, they were hard to recognize.
Cleanup
The cleanup took only about two weeks because of the large number of helping hands. It took over 87,000 man hourMan hour
A man-hour or person-hour is the amount of work performed by an average worker in one hour. It is used in written "estimates" for estimation of the total amount of uninterrupted labour required to perform a task. For example, researching and writing a college paper might require twenty man-hours...
s (roughly the number of hours in ten years) to remove the molasses from the cobblestone
Cobblestone
Cobblestones are stones that were frequently used in the pavement of early streets. "Cobblestone" is derived from the very old English word "cob", which had a wide range of meanings, one of which was "rounded lump" with overtones of large size...
streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes. The harbor was still brown with molasses until summer.
United States Industrial Alcohol did not rebuild the tank. The property became a yard for the Boston Elevated Railway (predecessor to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, often referred to as the MBTA or simply The T, is the public operator of most bus, subway, commuter rail and ferry systems in the greater Boston, Massachusetts, area. Officially a "body politic and corporate, and a political subdivision" of the...
), and is currently the site of a city-owned baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
field.
Causes
Local residents brought a class-action lawsuit, one of the first held in MassachusettsMassachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, against the United States Industrial Alcohol Company
United States Industrial Alcohol Company
United States Industrial Alcohol Company was an alcohol distiller in the United States. Charles Edward Adams, was chairman of the board. In 1919 they were responsible for the Boston Molasses Disaster. 125 lawsuits filed against the company in the aftermath....
(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
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
(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
United States Industrial Alcohol Company
United States Industrial Alcohol Company was an alcohol distiller in the United States. Charles Edward Adams, was chairman of the board. In 1919 they were responsible for the Boston Molasses Disaster. 125 lawsuits filed against the company in the aftermath....
ultimately paid out $600,000 in out-of-court settlements (at least $6.6 million in 2005 dollars).
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
Fermentation (food)
Fermentation in food processing typically is the conversion of carbohydrates to alcohols and carbon dioxide or organic acids using yeasts, bacteria, or a combination thereof, under anaerobic conditions. Fermentation in simple terms is the chemical conversion of sugars into ethanol...
occurring within the tank, carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...
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°F to 41°F (from −17°C to 5°C) over that period. The failure occurred from a manhole cover near the base of the tank, and it is possible that a fatigue
Fatigue (material)
'In materials science, fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. The nominal maximum stress values are less than the ultimate tensile stress limit, and may be below the yield stress limit of the material.Fatigue occurs...
crack there grew to the point of criticality. The hoop stress
Hoop stress
Circumferential stress is a type of mechanical stress of a cylindrically shaped part as a result of internal or external pressure.The classic example of circumferential stress is the tension applied to the iron bands, or hoops, of a wooden barrel...
is greatest near the base of a filled cylindrical tank. The tank had only been filled to capacity eight times since it was built a few years previously, putting the walls under an intermittent, cyclical load.
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.
An urban legend
Urban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
claims that the doomed tank might have been overfilled in late 1918 so that the owners could produce as much rum
Rum
Rum is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from sugarcane by-products such as molasses, or directly from sugarcane juice, by a process of fermentation and distillation. The distillate, a clear liquid, is then usually aged in oak barrels...
as possible before Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
came into effect. However, Purity Distilling did not make rum, but rather specialized in the production of industrial alcohol, which was exempt from the state prohibition laws in effect in 1919, and would later be exempted from the Volstead Act
Volstead Act
The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was the enabling legislation for the Eighteenth Amendment which established prohibition in the United States...
and other national Prohibition laws. While an urban legend, a 1999 television documentary, part of the Modern Marvels' Engineering Disasters sub-series, argued that—even if there was no specific plan to make alcohol to beat Prohibition—there may have been some general idea of increasing the volume at the last minute so as to prepare in case alcohol prohibition might occur.
Fatalities
{||-
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{|class="wikitable sortable" style="width:580px;"
|-
!Name!!Age!!Occupation
|-
|Patrick Breen||44||Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
|-
|William Brogan||61||Teamster
Teamster
A teamster, in modern American English, is a truck driver. The trade union named after them is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters , one of the largest unions in the United States....
|-
|Bridget Clougherty||65||Homemaker
|-
|Stephen Clougherty||34||Unemployed
|-
|John Callahan||43||Paver (North End Paving Yard)
|-
|Maria Distasio||10||Child
|-
|William Duffy||58||Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
|-
|Peter Francis||64||Blacksmith (North End Paving Yard)
|-
|Flaminio Gallerani||37||Driver
|-
|Pasquale Iantosca||10||Child
|-
|James H. Kinneally||Unknown||Laborer (North End Paving Yard)
|-
|Eric Laird||17||Teamster
|-
|George Layhe||38||Firefighter (Engine 31)
|-
|James Lennon||64||Teamster/Motorman
|-
|Ralph Martin||21||Driver
|-
|James McMullen||46||Foreman, Bay State Express
|-
|Cesar Nicolo||32||Expressman
Expressman
An expressman refers to anyone who has the duty of packing, managing, and ensuring the delivery of any cargo on board a train.During the 19th century, an expressman was someone whose responsibility it was to ensure the safe delivery of a train's gold or currency, which was secured in the "express...
|-
|Thomas Noonan||43||Longshoreman
|-
|Peter Shaughnessy||18||Teamster
|-
|John M. Seiberlich||69||Blacksmith (North End Paving Yard)
|-
|Michael Sinnott||76||Messenger
|-
|}
Today
The sites of the molasses tank and the North End Paving Company have been turned into a recreational complex, officially named Langone Park, featuring a Little League ballfield, a playground, and bocceBocce
Bocce is a ball sport belonging to the boules sport family, closely related to bowls and pétanque with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire...
courts. Immediately to the east is the larger Puopolo Park, with additional recreational facilities.
A small plaque at the entrance to Puopolo Park, placed by the Bostonian Society, commemorates the disaster. The plaque, entitled "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.
Drivers on Boston's Old Town Trolley and other tour services often read off accounts of the accident to their passengers, sometimes referring to it by the neologism "The Boston Molassacre".
External links
- Boston Public Library. Photos related to the event on Flickr. Many phrases are direct quotes.
- Listen online - The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 - The American Storyteller Radio Journal
- What caused the great Boston Molasses Flood? from the Massachusetts Historical Society
- "The Molasses Disaster of January 15, 1919", reprinted from Yankee Magazine
- An interview with Stephen Puleo, author of the book listed in References section above
- Molasses flood site, present-day pictures and list of 1919 inhabitants, at archive.org, children's book (fiction) centered upon the incident
- "Molasses", sea shanty based on the incident and the history of molasses. Attributed to Tom RoweTom RoweThomas J. "Tom" Rowe was the bass player and a singer in the folk trios Schooner Fare and Turkey Hollow. He was noted for playing a five-string bass instead of the usual four-string. Born to Charles "Bud" Rowe, and his wife, Thoma, he had two brothers named Russ and Chuck and a sister named Shirley...
of the Schooner Fare and Turkey Hollow folk music groups. - "Were You In Boston in 1919?", folk song about the incident.
- Molasses Flood of 1919
- Washington Times January 18, 1919