![]() ![]() ![]() One possible explanation is that the tank may have been shoddily constructed, insufficiently tested, and overfilled. The cause of the accident is not known with certainty. To this day, people say that molasses left from this disaster still seeps up from some of the streets on a hot day. The property became a yard for the Boston Elevated Railway (predecessor to the MBTA) and is currently the site of a city-owned baseball field. United States Industrial Alcohol, the parent company of Purity, did not rebuild the tank. In spite of the company's attempts to claim that the tank had been blown up by anarchists, it ultimately paid out $1 million in out-of-court settlements (equivalent to around $11 million as of 2005). Local residents brought a class-action lawsuit (one of the first held in Massachusetts) against the United States Industrial Alcohol Company, which had bought Purity Distilling in 1917. It took over six months to remove the molasses from the cobblestone streets, theaters, businesses, automobiles, and homes. Residential area (site of flattened Clougherty house) Rescuers found it difficult to make their way through the syrup to help the victims.ĭetail of molasses flood area. Twenty-one people were killed and 150 injured as the molasses crushed and asphyxiated many of the victims to death. Several nearby buildings were also destroyed, and several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet. The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue Elevated structure and lift a train off the tracks. The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 to 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (60 km/h) and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft² (200 kPa). The stored molasses was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant situated between Willow Street and what is now named Evereteze Way in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Īt 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank (50 ft (15 m) tall, 240 ft (70 m) around and containing as much as 2.5 million US gallons (9,500 m³ or 9,500,000 liters) collapsed. Molasses was also fermented (producing ethyl alcohol) for use in making liquor and as a key component in the manufacture of munitions. At the time, molasses was the standard sweetener for North America (it has now been replaced by sugar). The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company facility on January 15, 1919, one day before the Eighteenth Amendment enabling Prohibition was ratified. Downtown Boston with molasses flood area circled ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |