http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/molasses/molasses.html

... the Great Molasses Flood that swept through part of Boston,
Massachusetts on January 15, 1919.

At this time in history, molasses was America's primary sweetener. It
was used to make all types of cookies, cakes, bread, and especially
rum.

Due to its popularity at the time, there were many molasses factories,
warehouses, and storage tanks lining the shores of Boston. After all,
Boston was considered to be the distilling capital of the United
States.

To tell this story, we are only concerned with one of these facilities
- a large storage tank located in Boston's north end - near the sites
where the world famous Fanuel Hall (Quincy Market) and the New England
Aquarium stand today.

This was no small tank of molasses. The tank stood over 50 feet tall.
Estimates of its capacity range from 2.2 to 2.5 million gallons!

And we all know where this story is going.

A sudden thunderous cracking sound was heard. The tank exploded and
all the molasses began to flow down the city streets.

The actual wall of molasses was estimated to be from 15 - 30 feet high
and moved at 25-35 miles per hour in the area around the tank. The
depth was only (only?!!) several feet in the surrounding area. You
could not outrun this thing.

There was no chance of saving anyone in its destructive path. Anyone
that attempted to go near the sticky goo got stuck in it themselves
and could have been cooked alive. It could suck your boots right off
your feet.

The flood killed twenty-one people and injured an additional 150. Some
were suffocated, some cooked, and others were swept by the wave into
the harbor. I guess you could say that these unfortunate people were
molassassed to death. Not exactly how I wish to go.

The wave also destroyed millions of dollars worth of property. Homes
and warehouses were swept off their foundations and destroyed. Even
part of the city's elevated train line was destroyed.

Once the flood stopped, cleanup began. They could not remove the
trapped horses from the sticky mess, so they had to shoot them to
death. Freshwater from the fire hydrants would not wash away the
molasses, so salt water from the harbor had to be sprayed on the land.

It took over six months to remove the molasses from the cobblestone
streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes. The Boston
Harbor was also stained brown for six months (must have made for a
beautiful photo opportunity).

Believe it or not, there were reports that the molasses would actually
continue to creep out of the ground and cracks in the sidewalks for 30
years! Others claim that you can still smell traces of it on a very
hot day in the city.

So what happened to cause this mess?

No one is really sure, but there are two theories:

First, it was believed that the tank was overfilled due to the
impended threat of prohibition. It cracked open due to the extra
force.

An alternative explanation has to do with the weather that day. On the
prior day, the temperature was only 2 degrees Fahrenheit above zero.
On the day of the accident, it had quickly shot up to an unseasonably
warm 40 degrees. Some believe that this caused rapid expansion of the
molasses and overstressed the tank.

This accident is certainly one that will stick in the minds of
Bostonians for many years to come.
http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/molasses/molasses.jpg

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/molasses.htm

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/historical/a/molasses_flood.htm
Molasses Clocked at 35 MPH ... in January!

http://www.masshist.org/library/faqs.cfm#flood
The official investigation of the incident never conclusively
determined what caused the tank to collapse. The owners contended that
it was an external explosion, possibly anarchist sabotage (the alcohol
distilled from the molasses was destined for use in government
munitions), but few people accepted this explanation.

Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to
clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are
so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry

Saw that on History/Discovery- what a mess.
JR
Dweller in the cellar

Gunner wrote:
http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/molasses/molasses.html

... the Great Molasses Flood that swept through part of Boston,
Massachusetts on January 15, 1919.

At this time in history, molasses was America's primary sweetener. It
was used to make all types of cookies, cakes, bread, and especially
rum.

Due to its popularity at the time, there were many molasses factories,
warehouses, and storage tanks lining the shores of Boston. After all,
Boston was considered to be the distilling capital of the United
States.

To tell this story, we are only concerned with one of these facilities
- a large storage tank located in Boston's north end - near the sites
where the world famous Fanuel Hall (Quincy Market) and the New England
Aquarium stand today.

This was no small tank of molasses. The tank stood over 50 feet tall.
Estimates of its capacity range from 2.2 to 2.5 million gallons!

And we all know where this story is going.

A sudden thunderous cracking sound was heard. The tank exploded and
all the molasses began to flow down the city streets.

The actual wall of molasses was estimated to be from 15 - 30 feet high
and moved at 25-35 miles per hour in the area around the tank. The
depth was only (only?!!) several feet in the surrounding area. You
could not outrun this thing.

There was no chance of saving anyone in its destructive path. Anyone
that attempted to go near the sticky goo got stuck in it themselves
and could have been cooked alive. It could suck your boots right off
your feet.

The flood killed twenty-one people and injured an additional 150. Some
were suffocated, some cooked, and others were swept by the wave into
the harbor. I guess you could say that these unfortunate people were
molassassed to death. Not exactly how I wish to go.

The wave also destroyed millions of dollars worth of property. Homes
and warehouses were swept off their foundations and destroyed. Even
part of the city's elevated train line was destroyed.

Once the flood stopped, cleanup began. They could not remove the
trapped horses from the sticky mess, so they had to shoot them to
death. Freshwater from the fire hydrants would not wash away the
molasses, so salt water from the harbor had to be sprayed on the land.

It took over six months to remove the molasses from the cobblestone
streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes. The Boston
Harbor was also stained brown for six months (must have made for a
beautiful photo opportunity).

Believe it or not, there were reports that the molasses would actually
continue to creep out of the ground and cracks in the sidewalks for 30
years! Others claim that you can still smell traces of it on a very
hot day in the city.

So what happened to cause this mess?

No one is really sure, but there are two theories:

First, it was believed that the tank was overfilled due to the
impended threat of prohibition. It cracked open due to the extra
force.

An alternative explanation has to do with the weather that day. On the
prior day, the temperature was only 2 degrees Fahrenheit above zero.
On the day of the accident, it had quickly shot up to an unseasonably
warm 40 degrees. Some believe that this caused rapid expansion of the
molasses and overstressed the tank.

This accident is certainly one that will stick in the minds of
Bostonians for many years to come.
http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/molasses/molasses.jpg

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/molasses.htm

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/historical/a/molasses_flood.htm
Molasses Clocked at 35 MPH ... in January!

http://www.masshist.org/library/faqs.cfm#flood
The official investigation of the incident never conclusively
determined what caused the tank to collapse. The owners contended that
it was an external explosion, possibly anarchist sabotage (the alcohol
distilled from the molasses was destined for use in government
munitions), but few people accepted this explanation.


Confronting Liberals with the facts of reality is very much akin to
clubbing baby seals. It gets boring after a while, but because Liberals are
so stupid it is easy work." Steven M. Barry


--
--------------------------------------------------------------
Home Page: http://www.seanet.com/~jasonrnorth
If you're not the lead dog, the view never changes
Doubt yourself, and the real world will eat you alive
The world doesn't revolve around you, it revolves around me
No skeletons in the closet; just decomposing corpses
--------------------------------------------------------------
Dependence is Vulnerability:
--------------------------------------------------------------
"Open the Pod Bay Doors please, Hal"
"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.."

the first thing the "molasses flood" brought to mind was a recent article in
a magazine that's published locally "chronogram". it's a new-agey
hippy-dippy kind of magazine and i am afraid to even mention it here for
fear of public ridicule, and i don't much go for astrology stuff... but when
i saw the headline and then bits of the article (it includes stuff about the
molasses flood) my jaw dropped open. the article/magazine was published in
august, and i'd imagine their deadline was in july... two months before
katrina/new orleans. i was and am still floored by this article. i mean,
it was only a lucky guess... but wow.

http://www.chronogram.com/issue/2005...e/planetwaves/

i saw the discovery channel thing on the molasses flood. i thought the
conclusion was shoddy work on the tank (i guess that would be the
metalworking content, **** poor riveting, sub-standard quality steel, etc.).
i remember pics (either on tv or on the internet somewhere) of the "high
water mark" of the molasses up on second story windows close to the tank.
was pretty amazing.

b.w.



"Gunner" wrote in message
...

http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/molasses/molasses.html

... the Great Molasses Flood that swept through part of Boston,
Massachusetts on January 15, 1919.

At this time in history, molasses was America's primary sweetener. It
was used to make all types of cookies, cakes, bread, and especially
rum.



-snip-

Keywords:
In article , Gunner wrote:

When I was in college in 1971, I worked at a McDonalds in the North End
over the summer, just a few blocks from ground zero for the flood. This
being Boston, it got very hot & very humid occasionally. I can verify
that every once in a while, you could still detect the faint odor of
molasses in the air.

Doug White

Doug White wrote:

Keywords:
In article , Gunner wrote:

When I was in college in 1971, I worked at a McDonalds in the North End
over the summer, just a few blocks from ground zero for the flood. This
being Boston, it got very hot & very humid occasionally. I can verify
that every once in a while, you could still detect the faint odor of
molasses in the air.

Doug White

Me too. When I was in college around 1955 I had a part time job at the
world's very first Radio Shack store, the one on lower Washington Street
in Boston, which at that time was still owned by it's founders, the
Deutschmann brothers. That was about eight years before Tandy bought it
up, after it became practically bankrupt.

Someobody there pointed out the molasses smell to me on a warm day and
explained its origin. I was skeptical about it until I looked it up in
the library.

That Radio Shack store was around the corner from an olde tyme "burly",
The Old Howard Theater, a place which helped many of us students grasp
the concept of simple harmonic motion, making it easier to get a passing
grade in basic physics:

http://home.comcast.net/~jwisnia18/jeff/harm.html

Jeff
--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."