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Boston Molasses Flood of 1919...
Boston Molasses Flood of 1919...
Item # 568893
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January 16, 1919
THE NEW YORK TIMES, New York, January 16, 1919
* The Great Boston Ma Molasses Flood Disaster (1st report)
* Eve of prohibition ratification
This 24 page newspaper has one column headlines on page 4: "12 KILLED WHEN TANK OF MOLASSES EXPLODES" "Huge Sheets of Steel, Hurled Through Air, Destroy Structures on Boston Waterfront"
Other news of the day with front page reporting on the eve of prohibition ratification in America. Light browning with minor margin wear, otherwise good.
wikipedia notes: The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company facility on January 15, 1919, one day before the 18th Amendment (which mandated prohibition of alcohol production) was ratified. January 15, 1919 was an unusually warm day. At the time, molasses was the standard sweetener in the United States; it has now been supplanted by high fructose corn syrup. Molasses can also be fermented, producing ethyl alcohol which is used in the making liquor and was a key component in the manufacturing of munitions. The stored molasses was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant situated between Willow Street and what is now named Evereteze Way in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
At 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter and containing as much as 2,300,000 US gal (8,700,000 L) collapsed. Witnesses stated that when it collapsed there was a loud rumbling sound then what sounded like a machine gun as the rivets shot out of the tank. The ground was shaking as if a train was passing by.
The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 to 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 kph) and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft (200 kPa). The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and lift a train off the tracks. Nearby buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed, several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet.
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." [4]
The Boston Globe 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 and a truck was picked up and hurled into Boston Harbor. On that day more than 159 were injured and 21 people and several horses were killed as the molasses crushed and asphyxiated some. After the initial blast the molasses choking the wounded people, horses and dogs became one of the biggest problems.
.... 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
* The Great Boston Ma Molasses Flood Disaster (1st report)
* Eve of prohibition ratification
This 24 page newspaper has one column headlines on page 4: "12 KILLED WHEN TANK OF MOLASSES EXPLODES" "Huge Sheets of Steel, Hurled Through Air, Destroy Structures on Boston Waterfront"
Other news of the day with front page reporting on the eve of prohibition ratification in America. Light browning with minor margin wear, otherwise good.
wikipedia notes: The disaster occurred at the Purity Distilling Company facility on January 15, 1919, one day before the 18th Amendment (which mandated prohibition of alcohol production) was ratified. January 15, 1919 was an unusually warm day. At the time, molasses was the standard sweetener in the United States; it has now been supplanted by high fructose corn syrup. Molasses can also be fermented, producing ethyl alcohol which is used in the making liquor and was a key component in the manufacturing of munitions. The stored molasses was awaiting transfer to the Purity plant situated between Willow Street and what is now named Evereteze Way in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
At 529 Commercial Street, a huge molasses tank 50 ft (15 m) tall, 90 ft (27 m) in diameter and containing as much as 2,300,000 US gal (8,700,000 L) collapsed. Witnesses stated that when it collapsed there was a loud rumbling sound then what sounded like a machine gun as the rivets shot out of the tank. The ground was shaking as if a train was passing by.
The collapse unleashed an immense wave of molasses between 8 and 15 ft (2.5 to 4.5 m) high, moving at 35 mph (56 kph) and exerting a pressure of 2 ton/ft (200 kPa). The molasses wave was of sufficient force to break the girders of the adjacent Boston Elevated Railway's Atlantic Avenue structure and lift a train off the tracks. Nearby buildings were swept off their foundations and crushed, several blocks were flooded to a depth of 2 to 3 feet.
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." [4]
The Boston Globe 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 and a truck was picked up and hurled into Boston Harbor. On that day more than 159 were injured and 21 people and several horses were killed as the molasses crushed and asphyxiated some. After the initial blast the molasses choking the wounded people, horses and dogs became one of the biggest problems.
.... 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
Category: The 20th Century
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