The plaque, titled "Boston Molasses Flood", reads: Immediately to the east is the larger Puopolo Park, with additional recreational facilities.Ī small plaque at the entrance to Puopolo Park, placed by the Bostonian Society, commemorates the disaster. It is now the site of a city-owned recreational complex, officially named Langone Park, featuring a Little League Baseball field, a playground, and bocce courts. 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). United States Industrial Alcohol did not rebuild the tank. ![]() The Harvard study concluded that the molasses cooled and thickened quickly as it rushed through the streets, hampering efforts to free victims before they suffocated. When the tank collapsed, the fluid cooled quickly as it spread, until it reached Boston's winter evening temperatures and the viscosity increased dramatically. Two days before the disaster, warmer molasses had been added to the tank, reducing the viscosity of the fluid. The researchers concluded that the reports of the high speed of the flood were credible. The student researchers also studied the behavior of cold corn syrup flooding a scale model of the affected neighborhood. In 2016, a team of scientists and students at Harvard University conducted extensive studies of the disaster, gathering data from many sources, including 1919 newspaper articles, old maps, and weather reports. The tank's rivets were also apparently flawed, and cracks first formed at the rivet holes. Local residents collected leaked molasses for their homes.Ī 2014 investigation applied modern engineering analysis and found that the steel was half as thick as it should have been for a tank of its size, even with the lax standards of the day, and it also lacked manganese and was made more brittle as a result. When filled with molasses, the tank leaked so badly that it was painted brown to hide the leakage. He had no architectural or engineering experience. The failure occurred from a manhole cover near the base of the tank, and a fatigue crack there possibly grew to the point of criticality.Īn inquiry after the disaster revealed that Arthur Jell, USIA's treasurer, neglected basic safety tests while overseeing construction of the tank, such as filling it with water insufficient to check for leaks, and ignored warning signs such as groaning noises each time the tank was filled. Warmer weather the previous day would have assisted in building this pressure, as the air temperature rose from 2 to 41 ☏ (−17 to 5.0 ☌) over that period. The tank was also constructed poorly and tested insufficiently, and carbon dioxide production might have raised the internal pressure due to fermentation in the tank. The first factor is the belief that the tank may have leaked from the very first day that it was filled in the year 1915. The few workers in the building’s cellar had no chance as the liquid poured down and overwhelmed them.Several factors might have contributed to the disaster. An eight-foot-high wave of molasses swept away the freight cars and caved in the building’s doors and windows. Suddenly, the bolts holding the bottom of the tank exploded, shooting out like bullets, and the hot molasses rushed out. Next to the workers was a 58-foot-high tank filled with 2.5 million gallons of crude molasses. It was close to lunch time on January 15 and Boston was experiencing some unseasonably warm weather as workers were loading freight-train cars within the large building. ![]() ![]() ![]() The United States Industrial Alcohol building was located on Commercial Street near North End Park in Boston. Listen to HISTORY This Week Podcast: The Great Boston Molasses Flood The molasses burst from a huge tank at the United States Industrial Alcohol Company building in the heart of the city. Fiery hot molasses floods the streets of Boston on January 15, 1919, killing 21 people and injuring scores of others.
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